STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — For a second straight year, Vegard Busengdal was golden when it counted the most. Busengdal won his second race of the season and third career, winning the RMISA Championship in the slalom for the second straight year, leading UNM to a fourth place standing after two events at the 2018 RMISA Championships.
Overall, UNM’s men’s team finished third in the event, while the women were fourth as UNM combined for 134.5 points, just 14.5 out of second place.
Busengdal became UNM’s first repeat conference champion in the men’s slalom since Petter Brenna won three straight from 2009-11. Busengdal was tied for fifth after his first run, but he was just 0.57 behind the leader Ola Johansen of Colorado. In the second run, Busengdal had the top time, and had a small blip that cost him a little time, and he ended up .23 seconds behind Busengdal.
UNM’s Youri Mougel tacked on 20 points to the 40 scored by Busengdal by coming in 11th. UNM’s third scorer was Tyler Theis, who was 25th after the opening round but leaped all the way to 16th to score 15 points. His score was needed when Rob Greig was disqualified for missing a gate that wiped out his scoring run.
Other finishers for UNM were Isak Klein, who tied for 18th and Nick Veth, who tied for 25th. Alex Barounos recorded a DNF.
On the women’s side, Rebecca Fiegl picked up her eighth top-10 of the season and sixth straight in the slalom, coming in seventh, scoring 25 points. Alexandra Sjöström had her best finish of the year coming in a tie for 13th, scoring 18.5 points, and Haley Cutler was 17th for 16 points. Katharine Irwin, a title contender in the giant slalom, did not finish her opening run.
The RMISA championships continue with the Nordic Classical on Saturday, while the alpine squads will compete in the final RMISA giant slalom qualifier. That qualifier will not count in the standings.
Busengdal Wins RMISA Slalom Title
