IrWIN! Kat Nets 2nd GS Title/UNM Wins Women's GS
Loveland, Colo. — Skiing just 144 miles from her hometown of Vail, Colorado, Katharine Irwin, affectionately known as “Big Kat”, had a big, big day on the slopes, coming back from eighth place to win the Denver Invitational giant slalom, recording her second GS title of the season, and leading the Lobo women to their second team title of the season.
In the men’s race, Rob Greig had a third straight career-best finish, coming in fifth as the men’s team placed fourth. Overall, the Lobos are in third place at the Denver Invitational with 146 points, three points behind Colorado for second and nine behind Montana State for first.
Irwin, who won the GS in the season opening Montana State Invitational and is soon to be featured in Sports Illustrated for their Faces in the Crowd segment, was sitting all the way back in eighth place after her opening run. While the course slowed down considerably for the second run, Irwin was able to post the only sub-54 second total, coming in at 53.92. That forced everyone ahead of her to have to really rush the catch her, and none could.
Benedicte Lyche and Charley Field fell out of the top 10, keeping alive Irwin’s title chase, and when Denver’s Tuve Norbye had to take chances to win, she had a slight blip, and that was enough to knock her to fourth, giving Irwin a well-deserved second career title.
Her win posted UNM 40 points, and Hayley Cutler bounced back from 14th place after the first run with a solid run, the fifth-fastest in round two. That put her eighth, scoring 23 points. Rebecca Fiegl, who had her run of six straight top-10s snapped, still finished 13th, scoring 18 points and giving UNM 81, enough to top Utah, which was second with 73 points. UNM’s other finisher was Alexandra Sjöström, who was 20th.
On the men’s side, Rob Greig was again the story and the squad continues to put the pieces together around national title contender Vegard Busnegdal, and Greig is moving into that title talk as well. After two straight sixth place finishes in the slalom, Greig was brilliant on the GS course.
Greig almost needed a ladder to see the top 10 after a first run that saw him tied for 20th, but like Irwin, Greig posted the top time of the second run, blazing through in 53.44, moving him all the way into fifth place, scoring a career-high 29 points. Busnegdal finished 12th, solid for anyone not named Busengdal, as it marked his first non-top-10 of the season (aside from one DNF). Still, the Lobos’ top man scored 19 points. Tyler Theis finished 15th to continue his solid campaign, scoring 17 points.
Overall, the Lobos scored 65 to finish fourth, two points behind Westminster for third. Other UNM finishers were Youri Mougel in 26th, Alex Baronous in 27th, and Nick Veth in 29th, and Isak Klein getting a second run DNF.
The alpine squads get Saturday off as the Nordic’s take center stage in Minturn for the 10 and 5K freestyle races.
NOTES: Greig now has topped his career mark entering the season three times (it was eighth) … Busnegdal was going for his 12th career podium … Cutler hadn’t finished in the top 20 in her last two races.