Grøv, Izqueirdo-Bernier Finish 3-4 at CU
Colorado Invitational Through 7 Events
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Kornelius Grøv just missed becoming just the fourth Lobo to ever win both ends of a Nordic set in the same meet, finishing in third place, and teammate Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier finished fourth as the Lobos scored 75 points and took second in the men’s 10K Classic race at the Colorado Invitational.
Overall, the Lobos have 358.5 points, good for sixth place among the 10 teams in the Colorado Invitational. There is one more event to go in the event, the men’s slalom, which was canceled due to weather and conditions. That event will be run on January 19 at Bridger Bowl in Big Sky, Montana.
UNM’s point total has been hurt by illness running through the women’s Nordic side, with only two skiers going on Saturday, and just one, Savanna Fassio, on Sunday. Fassio finished 24th to pick 13 points for UNM.
In the men’s race, a 10K Classical with a mass start, a four-pack of skiers took hold of the race with Grøv and Izquierdo-Bernier leading the way at the 5K split, less than a second ahead of Logan Diekmann on Utah and Sigurd Roenning of Alaska Anchorage. It was those four at the top of the race basically the entire stretch, with Roenning winning the event at 29:00.0 even. Roenning finished second to Grøv in Saturday’s 10K freestyle race.
Diekmann was able to come in just ahead of Grøv for second at 29:00.6, and then Grøv finished third at 29:01.0. Izquierdo-Bernier finished fourth just 2.2 seconds behind his teammate. Grøv scored 34 points and Izquierdo-Bernier scored 31, giving UNM 65. The other 10 points UNM picked up came from Johan Eirik Meland, who finished 25th and scored 10. Meland, who came to UNM from a background as a biathlete, which generally utilizes the freestyle method, was 29th in the Classic race after the first 5K loop, but he turned it on in the second.
His second 5K loop was the 21st-best time of the group, moving him up to 25th. Ben Berend was UNM’s other skier, finishing 31st.
The team will now head north to Montana for the Montana State Invitational. The alpine squads will compete in the second RMISA giant slalom qualifier on Wednesday at Bridger Bowl in Bozeman, Montana. The alpine portion of the MSU Invitational will then commence on Thursday with the giant slalom and on Friday with the slalom. Saturday the teams will run the slalom again to finish the scoring of the Colorado Invitational. The Nordic events will be on Friday at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center with the 5/10K freestyle interval start and conclude on Saturday with the 15/20K Classical mass start.
NOTES: Grøv picked up both of UNM’s podiums, and he and Izquiero-Bernier teamed up to give UNM 13 top 10 finishes in the Invitational, counting the GS qualifier … UNM recorded just one Nordic podium in 2018 … with one event left UNM has 358.5 points, just 12.5 points behind the 371 it scored in the season opener a year ago … the second-place finish in the men’s 10K classical was a higher finish than any in 2018 (fourth at the UNM freestyle and classical races).