Updated Utah Invitational Standings and Giant Slalom Results
SNOW BASIN, Utah — Katharine Irwin, who specializes in the giant slalom, picked up her first top-10 run of the year, finishing eighth as the Lobos took fifth in the women’s giant slalom at the Utah Invitational.
Irwin’s run was enough to keep New Mexico in fourth place, but help widen the gap, as UNM now has bumped its edge over fifth place Alaska-Anchorage to 51 points (up from 34 points). Denver moved into the lead of the invitational with three events left.
New Mexico’s women’s alpine squad finished fifth overall in the event. Irwin moved up one slot from ninth with her second run, marking her first top-10 finish of the season, and her third career mark. She scored 23 points, giving her a women’s alpine team leading 49 on the season.
Karoline Søvik Myklebust finished 14th to net 17 points for UNM, and Alexandra Sjöström continued her solid season with a 17th place finish, good for 14 points. Not scoring, but continuing a great senior season was Taylor Grauer, who finished 18th, giving her a second top-20 this season, equaling her total from last year. Sydney Staples had a rare miscue and didn’t complete her first run.
UNM scoring three skiers and finishing four wasn’t an easy feat. Of the 39 in the field, only 23 finished both runs, and two schools, Montana State and Alaska-Anchorage, didn’t have enough skiers finish to get points from all three slots.
The men’s giant slalom will be contested on Friday, also at Snowbasin. Results will be available on live-timing.com, and twitter.com/UNMSkiing will have updated results.