ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Krista Niiranen had a pretty good opening weekend with a win and a second place showing in her first two collegiate races, and now she has the honors to prove it. THe Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association named her the Nordic Skier of the Week for her efforts at the Utah Invitational.
Niiranen finished second in the 10K Freestyle skate race on Saturday, and then her qualifying time in the classical sprint race was the best in the association, giving her UNM’s first-ever sprint winner as the event has been added to the schedule this year for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Niiranen’s two podiums worked well with Arnaud Guyon, who also picked up a podium finish in the 15K freestyle, giving UNM three podium finishes in just the first half of the Utah Invitational. The Lobo’s Nordic squads were in Utah for the first half of the Utah Invitational while the alpine squads were at Big Sky Resort in Big Sky, Montana for the first half of the Montana State Invitational.
This weekend, the two squads flip sites (and quite possibly waved at each other as they passed each other on the highway) and the Nordic squads will continue the back-end of the Montana State Invitational with races at Bohart Ranch. Saturday will showcase the freestyle races, with the women’s 5K and the men’s 10K. Sunday will feature the classical discipline with the women’s 15K and the men’s 20K. Niiranen will be going for a third straight podium, and her teammate Kati Roivas will be racing in a 15K for the first time with UNM since coming in second at the NCAAs last year.
For the men, along with Guyon, Petteri Vaherkoski will look for a second straight top 10 after finishing sixth in the sprint. UNM’s Nordic team enters the Montana State Invitational looking to move up from sixth place in the standings.
Conversely, the alpiners will look to improve on UNM’s fourth place standing in the Utah Invitational, and they will do it at Snowbasin, a change from the normal Park City venue. The schedule has the women’s giant slalom on Thursday and the men’s on Friday. Saturday will see both teams compete in the slalom to close the Utah Invitational, but all RMISA squads will run the slalom again in the extra RMISA qualifier on Sunday.
On the men’s side, Vegard Busengdal has three top-10s in his first three races, including a fifth place finish in the slalom on Sunday at Big Sky. UNM skied seven on the men’s side and got a perfect 14-for-14 on race runs, something that UNM hasn’t seen in a while. In addition to Busengdal, Alex Barounos will look to continue his hot start. The sophomore entered the season with no career top-20 finishes and promptly picked up three last weekend. UNM’s team still has All-American Rob Greig as well, who scored in both races last weekend.
On the women’s side, each of the three races saw a different leader, with Karoline Søvik Myklebust finishing eight in the women’s giant slalom, Katharine Irwin coming in 15th in the RMISA giant slalom qualifier and Alexandra Sjöström finishing 15th in the slalom.
All alpine results will be available at www.live-timing.com and the Nordic will be at www.summittiming.com, and live updates will be available throughout the weekend via www.twitter.com/UNMSkiing.