Skiing Heads to RMISA/NCAA West Championships
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico ski team, fully loaded with 19 student-athletes, will take on the rest of the conference in the 2018 RMISA/NCAA West Championships. The championships, along with an extra RMISA giant slalom qualifier, will take place in Steamboat Springs, Colorado at the site of the 2018, and 2016 NCAA National Championships.
The Lobos have just one defending champion, and that’s Vegard Busengdal, who won the slalom at the conference championships in 2017. Busengdal is a threat to win in either of his two races, the slalom or the giant slalom, as he currently sits second in the latest RMISA Alpine MVP standings. UNM’s other top skier with the best chance to win a conference title would be Katharine Irwin, who has won two of the four giant slaloms competed this year.
However, Busengdal and Irwin aren’t UNM’s only chances in alpine. Rob Greig has four top-six finishes, and Rebecca Fielg has four as well. Isak Klein, Tyler Theis, Youri Mougel and Haley Cutler have all turned in top 10 races on the year and any jump into a podium position.
In Nordic, UNM’s squad should be right at full stride heading into the race. Sindre Tungsevik, Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier and Erland Nydal have all picked up top-10 finishes, with Tungsevik and Nydal in the top five. For the women, Andrea Klementova, Brenna Egan and Hanna Varjus have all finished in the top 10, and it will take top marks for UNM to contend for a title.
The Lobos are looking for their first conference tournament title since 2009, and just their third overall. UNM’s two conference titles in 1992 and 2009 are the only times in the co-ed history of the title (since 1983) that a school other than Utah, Denver or Colorado has won the title.