Four Top 10s Move UNM to Third at RMISAs
ANCHORAGE, Ak. — It was quite the weekend for Rebecca Fiegl. The sophomore finished second in the slalom for the second straight day as both the men’s team and the women’s team took second in the respective slalom races, as UNM finished the RMISA Championships in third place.
The women’s team once again got a podium finish from Fiegl in picking up 69 total points to finish just ahead of Utah, which had 68 points, and behind Colorado, which scored 79. Again, UNM would have easily won the event but suffered a very late DNF, this from Sona Moravcikova, who was second after the first run.
UNM counted as its second scorer Hailey Cutler, who was 16th, scoring 17 points, and then Antonia Wearmouth, who was 18th and scored 15 points. UNM had two other finishers in Chloe Margue in 21st and Katharine Irwin in 24th.
On the men’s side, it was three top-10s that gave UNM 78 points, and that was good for second, just behind Utah’s 86 points. Vegard Busengdal, who suffered a tough DNF yesterday in going for a title in the UAA Invitational, finished fifth, scoring 29 points. He was one slot ahead of Olav Sanderberg, who was sixth for 27 points. Alex Barounous than had a fourth top-10 on the season, coming in ninth and scoring 22 points. Tyler Theis was 15th, Nick Veth was 22nd and Thomas Anderson was 30th for UNM.
The Lobos had their best finish since coming in second in the 2015 championships. UNM’s finish was its third time this season with a third-place finish. Now UNM will now have to check qualification points for NCAAs. Two on each side should be easy, with Feigl and Moravcikova for the women and Busengdal and Sanderberg for the men. From there it’s tougher to figure. The women’s third slot should come down to Irwin and Cutler, and the men’s third slot will come down to Barounos, who has been remarkable all season, and Theis.
Those selections should be announced late Monday, along with the Nordic selections.
NOTES: The NCAA Championships will take place Wednesday through Saturday, March 6-9 in Stowe, Vermont, hosted by the University of Vermont.