Montana State Invitational Results
BIG SKY, Mont. — Vegard Busengdal served up two more solid runs, earning him a third straight top-10 finish, this time coming in fifth place in the slalom at the Montana State Invitational. His 29 points led the Lobos to finish fourth in the men’s slalom, while the women finished sixth.
Busengdal, a sophomore in his first official weekend of skiing for the Lobos, picked up a career-best fifth place finish in the slalom after coming in sixth and 10th in the giant slalom on Saturday and Sunday. Busengdal was just one tenth of a second from a podium finish.
His three top 10s already gives him the active career lead for top 10s on the current squad. While Busengdal was blazing a trail, other Lobos skied well also. Rob Greig had a second straight solid showing, coming in 14th place, and Alex Barounos, who had never finished higher than 21st entering the season, recorded his third straight top-20 finish, coming in 19th. Greig scored 17 points and Barounos 12.
Rounding out the men’s side was Patrick Brachher and Isak Klein, who finished 21st and 22nd respectively. Klein, also a rookie, had his best finish. Tyler Theis came in 27th and Nick Veth was in 29th to round out the men’s side as all seven Lobos completed both runs.
For the women, the team was hurt by Karoline Søvik Myklebust, who was in the running for a top 10 finish but suffered a bobble on the second run and didn’t finish. That put rookie Alexandra Sjöström as UNM’s top scorer for the first time in her career, finishing 15th and scoring 18 points. Sydney Staples once again picked up a top-20 finish, her 32nd career top-20 finish. UNM’s other scorer was Katharine Irwin, who scored 12 points with a 24th place finish, one slot ahead of teammate Taylor Grauer in 25th.
Overall, the Lobos are in sixth place at the Montana State Invitational, with the Nordic events on Saturday (5/10K Freestyle) and Sunday (15/20K Classical). The alpine squad heads to Utah to continue the Utah Invitational on Thursday (women’s giant slalom), Friday (men’s giant slalom) and Saturday (slalom). On Sunday, the Lobos will take part in the RMISA slalom qualifier as well.