Lobos Head to NCAA Championships
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — As the University of New Mexico ski team was in their vans, heading up north for the eight hour drive to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, site of the 2018 NCAA National Championships, there is only word that can describe the thought process on the minds of the team.
Redemption.
For a little while, the 2017 National Championships seemed like the last for UNM Skiing, and it’s a good thing they weren’t. The Lobos struggled mightily in New Hampshire, recording just three All-American runs and coming in seventh with its lowest point total in years. For a little while in 2018, it looked like UNM couldn’t really make a run at any sort of title with just three Nordic racers in the opening meets.
It’s also a shot at redemption for Vegard Busengdal. After winning the 2017 RMISA slalom title, Busengdal was a solid pick to win a national title. And then came a practice run gone wrong. Busengdal caught an edge, slipped and crashed, but a crash would have been fine. However, he skidded through the retaining fence and crashed into a snow cannon. That caused an injury that wasn’t overly bad, but bad enough that UNM had to fly out Isak Klein as an emergency replacement.
Now, heading into the championships, UNM is feeling pretty good. Busengdal won a pair of races during the season including a second straight RMISA slalom title, and he has company as Katharine Irwin on the women’s side won her first two collegiate races during the season. UNM has also gotten numerous top five performances from Tyler Theis, Rob Greig and Rebecca Fiegl, and rookie Haley Cutler has turned in several top 10s. The Lobos are set up to do major damage on the alpine circuit on Wednesday (giant slalom) and Friday (slalom).
UNM’s Nordic squad has gotten better as reinforcements have shown up throughout the season. On the women’s side it was a breakout season for Brenna Egan, who had never finished in the top 20 in any collegiate race and dropped a top-10 finish in the first race of the season. Andrea Klementova has had several top 10s and Caroyln Lucca is a senior who has been a consistent top-20 finisher who has improved each week.
On the men’s side, all three Lobos have top 10s, with Sindre Tungesvik with a podium finish. Erland Nydal has a top five finish and Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier has finished in the top 10 in half of his races.
Certainly the RMISA teams of Utah (defending champion), Colorado and Denver (the two winningest programs in the NCAA) along with Montana State will be UNM’s top foes, along with Vermont and Dartmouth, but the Lobos have the makings of a team that can win individual titles, and those individual wins give you a chance. A chance that didn’t seem opossible a few months ago.
The NCAA will live stream all four races (Links to be added when available). The complete schedule is as follows:
March 7 (Wednesday) – Steamboat Springs Resort – Giant Slalom;
March 8 (Thursday) – Howelson Hill – 5/10K Classic Individual Start
March 9 (Friday) – Howelson Hill – Slalom (Night Races);
March 10 (Saturday) – Howelson Hill – 15/20K Freestyle Mass Start
Nordic Competitors-Men: Ricardo Izqueirdo-Bernier, Erlend Nydal, Sindre Tungesvik
Nordic Competitors-Women: Brenna Egan, Andrea Klementová, Carolyn Lucca
Alpine Competitors-Men: Vegard Busengdal, Rob Greig, Tyler Theis
Alpine Competitors-Women: Haley Cutler, Rebecca Fiegl, Katharine Irwin