Seawolf/UAA Invitational Alpine Notes
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — So less than two weeks ago, the New Mexico Lobos opened up the 2017 ski season. Unbelievably on Saturday, the alpine portion of the regular season will be over. Amazingly enough.
The Lobo alpine squads will head to Anchorage, Alaska to take part in the Seawolf Invitational and the UAA Invitational starting Wednesday and finishing on Saturday. The Nordic squads will finish the two Invitationals in the second week of February. The Seawolf and UAA Invitationals will take place at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood.
Wednesday and Thursday will feature the men’s and women’s giant slalom, and Friday and Saturday will feature the men’s and women’s slaloms. Wednesday’s giant slalom is a part of the Seawolf Invitational, and the Thursday giant slalom will be a part of the UAA Invitational. Friday’s slalom reverts back to the Seawolf, and Saturday finishes the alpine portion of the UAA.
The big question around the program in undoubtedly can Vegard Busengdal do it again? The Utah Invitational Alpine Skier of the Week, Busengdal has a streak of six straight top-10 finishes, including a pair of second place finishes in back-to-back slalom races. He has twice as many career top-10 finishes than the entire rest of the men’s alpine squad. That’s not to say the rest of the team are slouches however, as the alpine squad has seen a host of great results.
Rob Greig is second on the squad with 50 points, and his last race saw him turn in a career-best eighth-place finish. That marked his third career top-10 finish and it was his fourth top-20 of the season. Then you have Alex Barounos, who entered the season with no top-20 finishes to his career and has already turned in five, second on the squad. His 48 points are also good for third-most amongst the men’s alpine squads.
Patrick Brachner has also turned in three top-20 finishes and has scored 28 points, and Tyler Theis, Nick Veth and Isak Klein have all had great moments during the season as well.
For the women’s alpine squad, it’s not as cut and dried. Four of the five women have scored this season, with Katherine Irwin leading the way with 64 points and an eighth place finish. Right behind her is Karoline Søvik Myklebust with 59 points, also picking up an eighth place finish. Sydney Staples has been her usual consistent self with 43 points and four top-20 finishes. Newcomer Alexandra Sjöström has three top-20s and 32 points. Taylor Grauer hasn’t scored, but she has already matched her 2016 season with two top-20 finishes.
The Lobo alpine squads will be looking to push into the top three, knocking out one of the big three alpine RMISA schools in Colorado, Utah and Denver. UNM’s men’s squad did that in the slalom at Utah, finishing with a season-high 72 points and coming in third. Ironically, the women’s squad has a top score of 60 points, but it’s top finish of fifth was with 54 points in the women’s giant slalom at Utah.