Day 2 Results | RMISA GS Qualifier Results
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The University of New Mexico could only must one top-10 mark in the Nordic Classical races, that a 10th place showing from Erland Nydal, as the Lobos lost some ground and dropped to fifth at the halfway mark of the 2018 NCAA West/RMISA Championships.
The final four events, the giant slalom and the 15/20K freestyle will be competed on Sunday, February 25.
In the men’s race, Nydal was 10th and Sindre Tungesvik was right behind him in 11th, scoring 22 and 21 points apiece. UNM’s other two Nordic skiers amazing tied with each other for 26th place, as Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier and Niklas Rombock split 12 points between them. Overall UNM scored 55 points to finish fifth in the race.
On the women’s side, Hanna Varjus was the top finisher for UNM with a 22nd place finish, good for 13 points, and Andrea Klementová was next in 23rd place for 12 points. Carolyn Lucca was UNM’s other finisher in 30th place, scoring 10 points. Brenna Egan did not finish the race. Overall UNM’s 35 points put them seventh in the discipline.
With the results, UNM dropped to fifth place as Utah leapfrogged them and Montana State.
Additionally, the final RMISA giant slalom qualifier was held, with no team score kept, which probably just as well as the Lobos struggled in the final qualifier of the season. On the men’s side, only three of the seven Lobos finished, with Youri Mougel the top finisher in 13th place. Vegard Busengdal, who won the slalom the day prior, was 15th, the lowest finish of his career. Isak Klein was 25th. It marked the first race all season without a top-five finisher on the men’s side. Nick Veth didn’t complete his second run and Rob Greig, Tyler Theis and Alex Baronous all didn’t complete their first runs.
It was a much better day on the women’s side however with a pair of top-10 finishes as Rebecca Fiegl was sixth and Katharine Irwin was eighth. Haley Cutler was 19th and Alexandra Sjöström was 23rd to round out UNM’s skiers.