Drew Judycki/Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational Final Results
RED RIVER, N.M. — New Mexico got another top 10 finish from Carl-Johan Öster in the slalom, and Rob Greig joined him as well as the Lobo men’s alpine squad had another solid day as UNM finished fourth at its own Drew Judycki Memorial/Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational.
The men’s alpine squad was the highlight squad of the day for UNM, which struggled on the whole, whether it be through conditions (women’s alpine) or illness and injury (both Nordic squads).
The alpine run was treacherous to say the least, as a the warm temperatures of the last week or so gave way to an overnight freeze, glazing the course over, causing a host of crashes, ski outs, missed gates and hikes. It was none more evident than with UNM, which saw three skiers fail to finish and a fourth, Katharine Irwin, have to hike back through a missed gate in order to score as UNM’s third finisher. Alaska-Anchorage and Colorado Mountain both had just one finisher on the women’s side as only 23 college women finished the race.
Sydney Staples led the way for UNM with a 12th place finish, and Taylor Grauer finished 20th, scoring for the first time this season. It was her first top 20 of the season and her eighth career. Kat Irwin was 26th.
The men had their issues as well, but the Lobos handled the tough conditions. For Öster, he seems completely back to form, as his seventh place finish would have been a career-best if not for his fourth place finish yesterday. Öster’s second run was the third-best, catapulting him from 13th to seventh. Greig turned in his first top 10 of his collegiate career, coming in right at the number after two very steady runs.
Tyler Theis tied his career-best finish with an 18th place mark. Patrick Brachner was 21st and Alex Barounos had a career-best slalom finish of 23rd.
Nordic was a different struggle, for a totally different reason. Already without the odds-on favorite for RMISA MVP Emilie Cedervärn and number three scorer Austin Huneck, UNM lost Julia Devaux during the 5K skate to shin splints, and Aljaž Praznik was scratched right before the race due to a lingering back injury. That left UNM razor thin.
On the men’s side, it was Petteri Vaherkoski who led the way with an 18th place finish, followed by Niklas Rombock in 21st and Kyle Beling in 28th. On the women’s side Kati Roivas finished 12th, Eva Sever Rus was 21st and Brenna Egan was 26th.
The teams next week head to Minturn and Beaver Creek, Colorado for the RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regionals, hosted by the University of Denver. UNM has finished third at the RMISA meet in five of the last six years.
NOTES: UNM has now finished fifth, fourth, fifth and now fourth this season … the 462 points was actually the fewest in a regular season meet since 2008, but the scoring tables were higher for most of the seasons (50 point table) … With both Grauer and Egan scoring today, all 22 Lobos have scored at least once this season.