RED RIVER, N.M. — Mats Resaland won his first career race, ending CU’s dominance this season in that event. His win helped the Lobos end Colorado’s dominance overall, as his win propelled the Lobos to their second straight Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational title.
New Mexico in the end edged Colorado 579-551, with Utah third at 505.5 and Denver fourth at 502. While UNM did well across the board, the win can easily be traced to the men’s 10K freestyle on Saturday morning.
This season, Colorado’s tandem of Rune Oedegaard and Mads Stroem had finished 1-2 in all five previous Nordic races this season, which accounts for 77 points from just them. However, a soft track that forced most of the skiers to labor through the 10K course fed right into UNM’s hands, or rather, their skis.
Resaland and teammate Aljaz Praznik, who would finish second in the race both got off to decent starts, but neither were in the top three heading into the final lap. Both found another gear, with Resaland pushing his lead so far he amazingly survived a fall on the final downhill slope. He made it with just 1.9 seconds to spare ahead of Praznik.
For Resaland, the win was his first of his career after three oh-so-close second place finishes. “It was very soft out there today, we had a lot of snow,” said Resaland. “In the very last turn I went too far out. I’m so glad I still made it, even with the fall.”
One of the hardest things to do is get your first win in your final home race, but that’s exactly what he did, teaming up with Praznik to replace CU’s 1-2 punch with a 1-2 Lobo combo. “It was about time, finally,” said Resaland with a laugh. “I heard on the last lap I was fighting with Aljaz for the win, and that’s exciting when you hear your teammates and your team is right there.”
Resaland and Praznik combined for 77 points, and with Christian Otto’s 15, UNm won the men’s freestyle with 92 points. CU’s vaunted duo both finished outside the top 10, and CU picked up 65 points, and that swing was essentially the difference.
In real time, the men’s Nordic gave UNM the lead, and in order, the women’s Nordic, men’s slalom and women’s slalom never relinquished it.
On the women’s Nordic side, it was another brilliant race for Emilie Cedervärn who finished second, her third straight podium. She was defeated for the second straight race by Utah’s Veronika Mayerhoffer. Cedervärn was joined in the top-10 by Eva Sever Rus, who continues to battle through a bad back but scored 22 key points. Jessica Gnüchtel finished 12th and Anni Nord was 19th in her first race back after an illness.
The drama then shifted to the second runs on the mountain at Red River, which bounced around from exciting to bizarre. After the men’s morning run, the women’s run was halted after 12 had gone due to of all things a tree stump that became uncovered and posed a hazard, forcing those 12 to re-run after the gates were moved and all racers could re-inspect. The re-run worked to the benefit of Courtney Altringer, who had suffered a DNF and to Sara Ottesson, who blitzed her re-run in first place. It did claim Mateja Robnik as an unfortunate victim, as she missed a gate at the top of the track on the re-run after sitting in second early.
On the men’s second run, Mark Miller crushed his run to pick up a career-best tying fifth place finish, missing his first career podium by 0.42 seconds. Juho-Pekka Penttinen, who has won twice at Red River, leaped all the way from 15th to seventh after a brilliant second run. Sean Horner, who had to double-back on his first run, scored key points despite a 27th place finish. His score came into play after Carl-Johan Öster skied out after getting off track on a tricky portion of the end of course, a segment that claimed over 10 victims in the second run.
Still, UNM’s men’s alpine squad picked up 66 points, the second-best total behind Denver, who scored a perfect 111. Those 62 pushed UNM’s lead to 513-482, putting the win on the skis of the UNM’s women’s alpine squad to finish out the win. Finish it they did.
UNM was sitting in good shape after the opening women’s runs, and the Lobos never let the foot off the gas pedal. The Lobos got themselves three top-10s with Sydney Staples in eighth, Sara Ottesson in ninth and Courtney Altringer in 10th. Those 66 points clinched the win for the Lobos.
“We continue to get better, which is what our goal has been,” said head coach Fredrik Landstedt. “Mats and Aljaz were really good today and run a great race. It was great to see our alpines do well. It was really nice to the support from our men’s and women’s soccer teams as well.”
The Lobos, and the rest of the RMISA, now have a long break before heading to Alaska for the University of Alaska Anchorage Invitational (Feb. 23-26) and the RMISA/NCAA West Regionals (Feb. 27-28). Several UNM skiers including Courtney Altringer, Juho-Pekka Penttinen and Sean Horner will compete at the World University Games in Granada, Spain (alpine events are February 5-14). Karoline Søvik Myklebust was going to compete as well but suffered a broken ankle earlier in the week. Patrick Brachner is also injured and won’t compete in the World Championships in Vail.
SCORING: For the second season, the RMISA has the same scoring system utilized by the NCAA. Each school can designate six potential scoring skiers with the top three counting toward the team score. Points are awarded as follows for a maximum of 30 skiers: 40-37-34-31-29-27-25-23-22-21-20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Any finisher from a school that has already scored three skiers do not receive team point credit, with the next placement assigned to the next finisher from a school who has not yet utilized all three scoring spots.
Notes: The Lobos won the event despite missing two alpine skiers (Myklebust and Brachner) and two Nordic (Heleene Tambet and Aku Nikander) … Sydney Staples was a course expert, skiing four times today. She was part of the original re-run after the tree stump was discovered, and then she was granted a re-run in the second go when a loose gate got in her way on the course … New Mexico has won the Jade in back-to-back years, and in four of the past six (2010, 2011, 2014, 2015) … overall UNM has won the event seven times (1987, 1992, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015) … Resaland’s win was the first men’s freestyle win since Aku Nikander in the Pat Miller/University of Utah Invitational last year.