UNM Invitational Final Results
RED RIVER, N.M. — Two more team event wins, two more individual winners, and a second straight third place showing in the always tough RMISA was the sign of another big day on the slopes and trails as UNM finished just 42 points in back of winner Utah at The University of New Mexico/Drew Judycki Memorial/Jade Enterprises Invitational, held in Red River, New Mexico.
The Nordic races were held at Enchanted Forest Cross Country Ski Area, while the slalom races were held on the Downtown Trail course at the Red River Ski Area.
The Lobos were solid throughout the weekend, picking up two more event wins to give the Lobos six on the season. The morning Nordic races saw the Lobo men once again win the freestyle 5K race, with a third straight win for Kornelius Grøv. The freshman now has six top-10s in six races, five podiums and three wins, all those in the freestyle races. He and teammate Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier basically sat first and second the entire race, with Grøv winning by 0.02 seconds ahead of Izquierdo-Bernier. For Ricardo, it was his sixth straight top 10, and it marked his third podium of the season.
Grøv now, with his three freestyle wins, is not just a perfect three-for-three this season, but he needs one more win to tie Jimmy Vika’s Lobo record of four freestyle wins in a season, which he accomplished in 2003. Grøv now also is tied for fifth in all-time Nordic wins for a career with his three wins.
Grøv and Izquierdo-Bernier teamed for 77 points between the two of them, and Johan Eirik Meland picked up 14 points with his 21st place finish, and that gave UNM the Nordic win. Ben Berend finished 23rd.
The win’s Nordic team didn’t have a 1-2 finish, but still had some high marks, despite top skier Julie Spets sitting the race out. Savanna Fassio recorded a 10th place finish, her first carer top-10 mark, and Brenna Egan equaled her best freestyle finish of the season, coming in 13th. Dariya Kuznetsova was 18th as UNM scored 54 points, which was fifth but three points from third place.
On the Downtown Trail, the men’s alpine squad got a boost from Tyler Theis. In his four-year career, Theis owned four top 10s, all in the giant slalom. But on his home course, he was brilliant, coming down in ninth place for his fifth career top-10, and first in the slalom. He joined Vegard Busengdal in the top 10 for UNM, as Busengdal finished seventh. Olav Sanderberg, skiing with his dad from Norway watching him on, finished 13th to round out UNM’s scoring trio. The Lobos picked up 65 points to finish fifth in the race.
UNM’s other finishers were Thomas Anderson, who came in 25th for his best slalom finish, and Nick Veth, who finished in 30th. Alex Barounos’ hot streak ended when he had to abandon his opening run.
That left the women’s team, which recorded a shocker on Saturday by winning the slalom at the UNM Invitational. Normally stronger in the giant slalom, the women’s alpine squad wanted to send the message that Saturday wasn’t a fluke. That message was delivered.
It was really delivered early when Soňa Moravčíková and Rebecca Fiegl turned in the fastest two opening runs. For Moravčíková, wearing the No. 1 bib and skiing first, she basically posted the best time and let everyone try to better here, which no one could.
In the second run, Fiegl was solid, but slipped to fifth place. Moravčíková though was brilliant again, turning in the best run again, a tough trick to turn when you ski 30th in the heat. That gave Moravčíková her first collegiate win, and it came after a second-place finish yesterday. Moravčíková should be a lock for RMISA women’s alpine skier of the week honors.
She netted UNM 40 points and Fiegl 29. UNM’s other scorer came from Katharine Irwin. The GS specialist had a great set of runs, coming in 15th overall, her best slalom finish since the 2017 season. She netted UNM 16 points, and that gave UNM 85 points, topping Colorado which scored 80.
That gave UNM 563 points, good for third in the meet behind Utah (605.5) and Colorado (591).
UNM has next week off before heading to Alaska for back-to-back meets. The first is the UAA Invitational from February 17-22 and the second in the RMISA Championships from February 20-24. In both meets the Nordic events will go first and the alpine events second.
NOTES: The Lobos broke the 500-point barrier in back-to-back meets for the first time since scoring 501 and 514 in 2016 at Colorado and Montana State … Moravčíková’s slalom win was the first by a Lobo women’s alpiner since Mateja Robnik won the NCAA title on March 12, 2015, and it’s just the second since the 2011 season … UNM’s combined alpine team scored 315 points to lead all teams in the Invitational.