Montana State Invitational Results Through 4 Events
BIG SKY, Mont. — Vegard Busengdal picked up his ninth career podium and second in a row, coming in third in the slalom as the Lobos posted solid marks but dropped down to fourth place at the Montana State Invitational. The meet will continue next week with the Nordic events.
Along with Busengdal, the Lobo men got three other top 20 finishes with Rob Greig finishing 12th and Tyler Theis and Alex Barounos finishing in a tie for 19th. Youri Mougel was 28th and Nick Veth 34th.
Katharine Irwin on the podium from her GS title on SundayBusengdal was first after the opening run, but the mountain slowed considerably on the flip for the second run, with times much faster for the first few runs (which start at 30th place and then work backwards). By the time it got to Busengdal, he had to slog through, and completed his run in the 16th-best time. However, his blazing opening run was enough to keep him third and on the podium.
Greig, Theis and Barounos were all within a place of each other after the opening go, but Greig put together the best second run, and it almost jumped him into the top 10. Overall, UNM scored 66 points to finish fourth in the men’s slalom.
It was much trickier for the women’s team. Rebecca Fiegl had the top opening run for the squad, coming in 12th in the opening run. Katharine Irwin, who won the giant slalom yesterday, was 21st and teammate Alexandra Sjöström was 22nd, with Haley Cutler skiing out.
In the second run, it was a tougher go. Sjöström didn’t complete her run, and then Irwin bobbled and recovered enough to finish, but it cost her as she was 24th overall in the second run and she fell out of the top 20 to 23rd.
However, Fiegl earned a second straight top 10. She was able to turn in the fifth fastest run of the second round, and that allowed her to move from 13th to ninth. With just two scorers, UNM tallied just 33 points, finishing seventh overall in the women’s slalom.
The alpine squad now moves to Utah for next week’s Utah Invitational with the women’s giant slalom on Thursday, the men’s giant slalom on Friday and the slalom on Saturday. The Nordic squads will complete the Montana State Invitational on Saturday with the 5/10K freestyle and on Sunday with the 15/20K classical.
NOTES: Busengdal now has five career podiums in the slalom to go with four in the giant slalom. He has 13 career top 10s in 15 races, and all 13 completions have been in the top 10 … it won’t help for the next two meets, but the UNM Nordic squad should get reinforcements in time for the Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational in February as the team currently has just two skiers on the men’s side and the women’s side. Six more are due to UNM when school starts back up … the 272 points were the most alpine points since scoring 306 last year at the UAA Invitational.