Men’s Slalom Wins Event Title, Team Finishes 6th
NCAA Championships Final Results
STOWE, Ver. — The University of New Mexico’s men’s slalom trimuvirate of Vegard Busengdal, Alex Barounos and Olav Sanderberg all had terrific second runs, gaining themselves 17 points from the first run, and it was more than enough to win the NCAA’s men’s slalom race, UNM’s 24th event title at an NCAA Championship. The Lobos overall finished sixth at the NCAAs, the teams’ best finish since coming in fifth in 2015.
Vegard Busengdal and Alex Barounos both earned All-America status (Busengdal on the first team, Barounos on the second) as UNM easily topped second place Denver 74-57. UNM’s squad was the only team to place all three skiers within the top 12. Overall, New Mexico finished sixth with 330 points, the best finish for UNM since 2015.
In a course that had one real tricky spot near the end of the race on the men’s side, the field of 34 combined to complete 66 of 67 runs. UNM was sitting in decent shape after the opening runs. Busengdal was the first skier out of the chute, and he ended up seventh after his opening run.
Barounos was 11th and Sanderberg sat 19th, meaning had the race been just the one run, UNM would have scored 57 points. The fact that UNM was able to move up so many places when no DNFs anywhere along the line in the second run borders on astonishing.
Sanderberg was the 11th skier out in the second run, and he was able to turn in what at the time was the third-best run of the second run, and it would end up fifth-best. That was more then enough to shuttle him up seven spots to 12th, missing out on All-America honors by 0.43 seconds.
Barounous was 11th, meaning he just needed to move up one spot to become an All-America (the top five finishers earn First Team All-America honors, the next five are Second Team honorees). Barounos came down and briefly held the lead, and then needed for someone to come in behind him. As each competitor finished, Barounos moved one spot back, second, third, fourth, all the way to 10th with just the leader Tanguy Nef of Dartmouth left. At that point, it looked like Barounos’ All-American dreams would be dashed, but Nef bobbled on a gate and had to spend time recovering, and the precious seconds lost (he fell from first to 27th) put Barounos’ name in the history books.
His teammate Busengdal was attempting to become UNM’s first back-to-back First Team All-America since Petter Brenna did it by finishing fourth in 2010 and second in 2009. Busengdal was able to navigate the course with ease, and he turned the very late corner as tightly as any skier before him, giving him a sparking 53.24 in the second run, and a 1:42.33 combined. He would finish third, just 0.17 out of second.
Busengdal scored 34 points, Barounos scored 21 and Sanderberg 19, easy besting Denver’s 57, despite Denver’s Jett Seymour winning the event. For UNM, it was the 24th individual NCAA race win in school history, and it was the fifth time the men’s slalom race was won. UNM also won the men’s slalom in 1996, 1997, 2004 and 2006.
While the Lobo women didn’t have the same result, the team still had a terrific race, finishing sixth in the women’s slalom, and much like the men, the Lobos moved up from the first run. The ladies’ opening runs so Rebecca Fiegl 15th, Sona Moravcikova 16th and Antonia Wearmouth 30th. That would have given UNM 32 points.
Wearmouth was the first out in the second run, and she was able to slide all the way up to 24th as her run of 56.88 was the best of any racer outside of the top-10. Wearmouth picked up seven points for the Lobos, and she did it in the event that isn’t her top one, as she scored better in the giant slalom in every race this year.
Moravcikova than came to the gate, and she hammered home the seventh-best run of the second go, and that temporarily had her in the All-America zone, although she would eventually fall to 12th place, missing All-America honors by 0.55 seconds. She picked up 19 points for UNM.
Fiegl put down a solid second run as well, and she was able to maintain her 15th place showing picking 16 points for the Lobos and clinching sixth place in the event with 42 points.
NOTES: New Mexico picked up five All-America honors, all on the men’s side, and that tied Colorado and Vermont for the most men’s All-America honors.