STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — The Lobos picked up three more top 10 finishes in the RMISA Championships’ final four events, including a sixth place showing by Sindre Tungesvik as the New Mexico Lobos finished the 2018 conference meet in fifth place with 413.5 points.
Tungesvik’s sixth place showing was his second top 10 in the freestyle in three races, and it was the best Nordic finish of the championships for UNM, scoring 27 points for the Lobos. Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier just missed on the top 10, coming in 11th, and scoring 20 points. However, they were the only two Lobos to race, so UNM finished with 47 points, putting them sixth in the race, but had any Lobo raced and finished, UNM would have had enough points for fourth place.
On the women’s side, Andrea Klementová was UNM’s top finisher, coming in 12th place, scoring 19 points. Carolyn Lucca was 17th, her second best freestyle finish of the season, scoring 16 points. Brenna Egan, who didn’t race on Saturday, was UNM’s third scorer with 12 points, coming in 22nd, while Hanna Varjus was 30th. Overall UNM scored 47 points, same as the men, and came in sixth.
In the women’s giant slalom, Rebecca Fiegl was ninth, giving her at least a top-13 finish in all 12 races this season, including 10 top-10 finishes. Fiegl scored 22 points, one better than teammate Katharine Irwin, who was 10th with 21 points. For Irwin, it was her fifth top 10 finish in six giant slaloms this season. Haley Cutler rounded out UNM’s scoring trio with a 14th place finish for 18 points and UNM’s women’s alpine team finished fourth with 61 points.
On the men’s side, the team suffered its lowest point total, 34, of the season as no Lobo made it into the top 20. Rob Greig was UNM’s top finisher in 21st place, scoring 15 points. Vegard Busengdal, who won the RMISA slalom, bobbled and slid all the way to 24th, his lowest career finish. He scored 13 points, and UNM’s next best finisher was designated non-scorer Nick Veth, who was 27th. Tyler Theis was 28th, scoring 10 points.
UNM’s other finishers were Alex Baronous in 30th and Youri Mougel in 39th. Isak Klein suffered a DNF in the opening run.
UNM’s final meet in the NCAA Championships in the same mountain as the RMISAs March 6-9. UNM’s official 12-person squad will be announced during the week.
Lobos Finish RMISAs in Fifth, NCAAs Up Next
