ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico filled all 12 qualifying slots for the 2018 NCAA National Championships, one of eight programs to do so nationally. The NCAA Championships are being hosted by the University of Colorado March 7-10 in Steamboat Springs.
The Lobos are one of eight teams that qualified a full complement of 12 skiers for the NCAA meet, joining Alaska-Anchorage, Colorado, Dartmouth, Montana State, Utah and Vermont. Middlebury just missed a full squad, qualifying 11 to the championships. Overall, there are 23 institutions that will have skiers at the championships.
A total of 40 Nordic skiers for the men and 40 for the women earn their paths from the three Nordic regions, East, Central and West. For Alpine, 34 skiers for each gender qualify from the East and West regions.
The Lobos will be led by a pair of First Team All-RMISA selections in Vegard Busengdal and Katharine Irwin as the league’s all-conference teams were announced earlier on Tuesday.
On the men’s side, Busengdal was a two-time winner in the slalom this season, both in the slalom, and his eight top-10 finishes tied for the second-most in the RMISA. He also was second in top-5 finishes with eight and he tied for second with five podiums. Busendgal, just a sophomore, scored an even 300 points on the season and he has 609 in his short two-year career. He qualified for NCAAs last season but crashed in a practice run and had to miss the championships, making this his NCAA debut.
Joining Busengdal is Rob Greig and Tyler Theis, both making their second NCAAs. Greig, a senior, was a giant slalom All-American two years ago at Steamboat Springs. In 2018 Greig picked up four top-10s on the season and his 179 points were the second-most on the team. Theis had a pair of top-five finishes in the giant slalom, and he scored 84 points on the season.
Busengdal, Greig and Theis scored counting runs in 24 of their combined 30 runs on the season.
For the women’s alpine squad, the team is led by two-time RMISA winner Katharine Irwin, who picked up four top-10 finishes on the season, all in the giant slalom, which is her specialty. Irwin, like Busengdal on the men’s side, is a definite national title contender. Irwin’s 155 points were actually second on the team to Rebecca Feigl, who made the NCAAs in her first season.
Feigl’s 10 top-10 finishes tied for the second-most in the RMISA, and four of those were fifth-place finishes. She completed every run on the season and led the team with 253 points. The other NCAA qualifier was the other newcomer on the squad, Haley Cutler. The Idaho native had a pair of top-10 finishes as she scored 130 points on the season.
For the Nordic squad, five of the six NCAA qualifiers are newcomers. The one repeat NCAA competitor is Brenna Egan. The junior had a breakout season with the first top-20 finishes of her Lobo career, including her first top 10. Egan’s 95 points on the season more than doubled her two-year total of 81 points entering the season. She will be joined by transfer newcomers Andrea Klementová and Carolyn Lucca.
Klementová led the team with 124 points on the season, recording one top-10 and five top-20s. Lucca, who is the teams’ lone graduate transfer, scored 88 points and raced eight times with seven counters, including two top-20s.
On the men’s side, it’s a whole new crew as Sindre Tungesvik, Erlend Nydal and Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier will all take part in their first NCAAs. Tungesvik was the teams’ leading scorer with six top-20 finishes, including three top-10s and one podium. Overall, he scored 145 points. Erlend Nydal missed the opening two meets but scored 115 points with three top 20s, two top 10s and one fifth-place finish. Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier was skiing in the Canadian championships early in the season, but he took part in four races, scoring 64 points and recording three top-20 finishes and one top 10.
The Lobos last won the NCAAs back in 2004. The Lobos will be looking to improve upon last years’ seventh-place NCAA finish and three All-Americans. UNM’s last podium finish was in 2014 when the team came in third at the championships in Utah. UNM is looking to continue its streak of consecutive top-nine finishes at the NCAAs to 36 straight years.
Lobo Ski Team Qualifies Full 12 for NCAAs
