Skiing Hosts UNM Invitational This Weekend

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s Super Bowl weekend.  Yes, we know it’s Super Bowl weekend in the NFL with the Patriots and the Rams playing down in Atlanta.  But, it’s also Super Bowl weekend for the New Mexico ski team, as the group heads to Red River to host The University of New Mexico/Drew Judycki Memorial/Jade Enterprises Invitational.  The event will take place Friday and Saturday, February 1 and 2, and it will be split between the Red River Ski Area and the Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area.

UNM finished in third at the Colorado Invitational, getting a pair of men’s Nordic wins, one from Kornelius Grøv and one from Ricky Izquierdo-Bernier.  Grøv’s win was his second of the season, and he has a streak of four straight podiums.  For Izquiero-Bernier, the win was the first of his career, and it gave him three straight podiums and four straight top 10s.  Other podiums on the weekend were picked up by Vegard Busendgal in the slalom.

The Lobos have been skiing well as a team with three event wins (men’s freestyle at Colorado, the men’s giant slalom at Colorado, and the men’s slalom at the Montana State Invitational (which was in Colorado).  Additionally, the women’s giant slalom at Colorado was second, and the men’s classical at both Montana State and Colorado were second.  UNM has been bolstered by skiers that traditionally have been non-scorers.  While Tyler Theis is a two-time NCAA particpant and forms a formidable 1-2-3 punch was Busengdal and Olav Sanderberg, both Alex Barounos and Nick Veth are in the midst of career years.  Barounous recorded his first career top 10 and has factored into the scoring column twice, while Veth has broken into the top 20 on a consistent basis.

On the women’s side, Katherine Irwin was the NCAA runner-up in the giant slalom, but she has but one GS finish in four races.  It hasn’t mattered as Hailey Cutler, Rebecca Fiegl, Antonia Wearmouth, Chloe Margue and Soňa Moravčíková have all picked up the slack.  Moravčíková has four top-10s this year, Fiegl three, Cutler one and Wearmouth one.  Only Margue is missing a top-10, but she finished 11th in Colorado, showcasing UNM as a dangerous squad.

In Nordic, Grøv and Izquierdo-Bernier might be the nation’s most dynamic duo, but it would be up to Johan Eirik Meland or Ben Berend to pick up the scoring slack.  No problem.  In the last freestyle race, Meland finished fourth and Berend fifth, giving UNM a near perfect score.  On the women’s side, illness seems to finally have cleared out of the systems, but despite that, Brenna Egan has skied well including a 13th place finish, and Julie Spets has a pair of top-10s.  Along with a healthy Dariya Kuznetsova and Savanna Fassio, UNM is primed for a solid weekend at full strength.  Only Fassio has skied in all four races this year, with Egan, Spets and Kuznetsova only racing in six of a possible 12 combined.

The meet is the third of four in the regular season for UNM.  The team will head to Alaska for the final regular season meet before staying there for the RMISA Championships.