Spencer James Nelson Colorado Invitational Day 2 Results
Steamboat Springs, Colo. — Emilie Cedervärn did what she does, winning her second freestyle race of the season, giving her seven career Nordic wins and Katharine Irwin had her first career podium finish as the Lobos remained in fifth place in the Spencer James Nelson Colorado Invitational after six events.
For Cedervärn, it marked her fourth career freestyle win and her seventh overall. She is now second all-time at UNM in career Nordic wins behind Martina Stursova, who had eight. She is tied with Ivana Radlova with her seven. Radlova is the only other Lobo women’s Nordic with more freestyle wins with five.
Cedervärn’s win wasn’t a fluke either. She defeated second place Cambria McDermott of Montana State by 36.4 seconds, which was the largest spread between any two skiers in the race. Teammate Eva Sever Rus was in eighth place and Kati Roivas was 12th as UNM picked up 82 points to come in second in the freestyle.
Julia Devaux finished 19th and Brenna Egan was 28th to round out UNM’s skiers.
On the men’s side, there were no top 10 finishes, but Petteri Vaherkoski was awfully close with an 11th place finish to lead UNM’s men. Austin Huneck was 17th and Aljaž Praznik was 19th as UNM used three top 20 finishes to pick up 54 points, good for fifth overall in the race.
Niklas Rombock was 26th and Kyle Beling was 27th for UNM.
The day marked the first time this season that the alpine and Nordic races were competed on the same day, and It helped UNM take a second podium finish. Freshman Katharine Irwin turned in her best career performance with a third place showing, just 0.37 seconds out of her first title. Irwin was sixth after her first run, but she turned in the best time of the second run to leap into third place overall. It was Irwin’s second career top 10 finish as she came in two weeks ago in her last giant slalom in Montana.
Courtney Altringer narrowly missed her first top 10 finish of the season, coming in 11th place for her sixth top 20 finish of the season in six races. Karoline Søvik Myklebust was right behind in 13th place. Sydney Staples, who had scored in every race this season, finished in 16th place for another top 20 finish, but she didn’t score. Sara Ottosson, who had a career-best sixth place finish in the slalom yesterday, was 22nd. Taylor Grauer didn’t finish on the second run.
On the men’s side, the Lobos picked up their first top 10 of the season at Carl-Johan Öster finished seventh, picking a season-high 25 points for the Lobos. UNM might have scored more than 47 points in the discipline but Rob Greig, who was battling for a top 10 finish, couldn’t finish his second run.
Alex Barounos finished tied for 20th place. Tyler Theis finished 27th but scored the final 11 points for the Lobos. They were the only Lobos to finish both runs.
Overall, UNM is in fifth place and in striking distance of Montana State in fourth place after six events, with just the two Nordic classical races left tomorrow morning. UNM swept the classical races last weekend in Montana.
NOTES: Öster’s seventh place finish tied his career-best … Irwin’s third place finish was UNM’s sixth top 10 finish of the season on the women’s alpine side … Huneck and Vaherkoski, both newcomers, are the only Nordics to have recorded top 20s in all five races … Roivas has finished no worse than 12th in any of her five races.
Overall Standings (Through 6 of 8 events): Utah 468, Denver 440, Colorado 432, Montana State 389.5, New Mexico 372, Alaska-Anchorage 312.5, Westminster 240, Colorado Mountain 61, Wyoming 38.
Women’s Slalom Scores: DU 94, UNM 70, UU 66, CU 64, MSU 60, UAA 54, WMC 46, CMC 9
Men’s Slalom Scores: CU 86, WMC 75, DU 71, UAA 61, MSU 60, UU 53, UNM 47, CMC 18.
Women’s Nordic Freestyle: UNM 83, MSU 82, UU 81, CU 61, DU 56, UAA 55, WYO 15.
Men’s Nordic Freestyle: UU 98, MSU 82, DU 75, CU 67, UNM 54, UAA 45, WYO 23.
Women’s Giant Slalom Scores: UU 86, DU 79, UNM 72, CU 69, WMC 53, MSU 52, UAA 43, CMC 9.
Men’s Giant Slalom Scores: CU 86, UU 85, WMC 66, DU 62, UAA 55½, MSU 51½, UNM 47, CMC 25.