Men’s 20K Freestyle | Women’s 15K Freestyle | Final NCAA Standings
JACKSON, N.H. — New Mexico picked up 33 points in the men’s and women’s freestyle Nordic races, and that was enough to allow New Mexico to finish seventh at the 2017 NCAA ski championships, hosted by the University of New Hampshire.
New Mexico was able to hold off Northern Michigan 188.5-182. The Lobos picked up 17 points in the men’s 20K race, with Arnaud Guyon finishing 17th, getting 14 points. Petteri Vaherkoski and Aljaž Praznik finished 29th and 30th, netting UNM three final points in the race. On the women’s side, Krista Niiranen couldn’t replicate her All-America performance in the classical, coming in 15th place, scoring 16 points. She was UNM’s only scorer in the women’s 15K race with Brenna Egan coming in 37th and Kati Roivas not finishing.
The Lobos picked up just three All-America honors at the 2017 championships, all second team honors. Karoline Søvik Myklebust and Katharine Irwin earned the honors in the giant slalom, and Niiranen in the classical.
UNM’s seventh place finish was one slot behind its 2016 finish, yet the 2017 team was besieged by injuries that turned New Mexico’s NCAA roster all cattywompus. Vegard Busengdal, a national title contender, got hurt in a training run two days before the championships, and 2016 All-Americans Eva Sever Rus and Kati Roivas were both injured. Sever Rus never made it to the championships after a back injury limited her to just two races on the season, and Roivas was injured in a training accident and never fully recovered, despite her efforts in the championships.
The Lobos lose just one member of the men’s team in Praznik, and four from the women’s squad in alpiners Sydney Staples, Myklebust and Taylor Grauer along with Sever Rus.
NOTES: New Mexico’s seventh place finish marked the 35th straight year that UNM has finished in the top nine … Utah won the national title for the 11th tie, with Colorado second and Denver third.