ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — There is no truth to the rumor that the New Mexico alpine squad left messages at the hotel in Utah for the Nordic squad, but hey, you never know. The Lobo alpine squad heads to Bozeman for the first half of the Montana State Invitational while the Nordic squad gets its season open with the back half of the Utah Invitational.
The Lobos currently are in fifth place of the Utah Invitational after the four alpine events. The highlight for UNM was certainly the skiing of Karoline Søvik Myklebust, who turned in a fifth place finish in the slalom and a seventh place finish in the giant slalom. Sydney Staples and Courtney Altinger were also true to form with scoring races, including a top-10 finish in the slalom by Staples.
For the men, Alex Baranous was the only Lobo to score in both meets as UNM went without a finish from Carl-Johan Öster, the top returning skier on the squad. Rob Greig picked up a top-20 finish and has shown he can be a factor for New Mexico this season.
On the Nordic side, the women’s team features two former national champions, with Emilie Cedervärn the reigning national champion in classical and Eva Sever Rus, who won the 2014 freestyle title. The key will be which among Kati Roivas, Brenna Egan and Julia Devaux will step up and challenge. For the men, Aljaž Praznik is the top returner with the rapidly improving Kyle Beling also back. Austin Huneck, Niklas Rombock and Petteri Vaherkoski will all be racing for the first time collegiately this week.