UNM Skiing at RMISA Championship Notes
BOULDER, Colo. — Krista Niiranen, a sophomore in her first season with New Mexico, was named the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association MVP for the 2017 seasons, announced league officials. The announcement was made on the eve of the RMISA championships, which begin in Beaver Creek and Minturn, Colorado on Friday.
Niiranen becomes UNM’s first RMISA Nordic MVP since Martin Kaas in 2010. She also is the first MVP for UNM since Sean Horner earned the honor in 2012 for men’s alpine.
The RMISA MVPs are based on the regular season and are calculated by a points system which takes into account the best three finishes for every skier in the league in freestyle and classical. Niiranen picked up 191 points based on six top-seven finishes, allowing her to edge Denver’s Guro Jordheim, who recorded 184 points.
Niiranen won the first race of the season, the Utah Sprints that were run as a part of the U.S. Nationals. She also had second place finishes in the 10K freestyle at Utah and the 15K classical at Montana State. She finished third in the 5K freestyle at Montana State as well. She rounded out her MVP season with seventh place finishes at the Seawolf 15K classical and the Seawolf classical sprints.
Niiranen enters the RMISA championships as a title contender, but UNM will almost assuredly not take home a team title as injuries have decimated what started as a promising campaign. Four-time All-America Eva Sever Rus will not be able to continue her quest to earn All-America honors in four straight years as she is most likely out for the season with a back issue. Kati Roivas is still working at recovering from a freak training accident, and Julia Devaux also had her season shut down, leaving just Niiranen, Brenna Egan and Julie Ensrud.
On the men’s side, Aljaž Praznik should be recovered from an illness, allowing the men to possibly be at full strength. They have been led by Arnaud Guyon, who was tied for seventh in the MVP race.
The revelation for UNM this season has been the performances of the alpine squads. Vegard Busengdal finished second in the men’s alpine MVP race with five podium finishes (four seconds, one third). The women’s team has been a three-headed dragon with alternating great finishes by Karoline Søvik Myklebust, Sydney Staples and Katharine Irwin.
Overall UNM picked up 12 podium finishes on the season with five different skiers accounting for those, and UNM had three RMISA skiers of the week, Busengdal, Niiranen and Myklebust.
The RMISA Championships begin Friday with the giant slalom, held at Beaver Creek. Saturday will have the slalom, also at Beaver Creek, and the 5K and 10K Nordic classical at Maloit Park, with the meet concluding on Sunday at Maloit Park with the 15K and 20K freestyle.