Men’s Nordic Propels Lobos Into First Place
MSU Invitational (Through Six Events)
BOZEMAN, Mont. — When it comes to upsets and shocking development in the winter sporting world, there’s Team Shuster winning Olympic Gold in the 2018 Olympics when they were just 2-4 and seemingly out of the running, there’s the Miracle on Ice from the 2018. It won’t make those national headlines, but what UNM’s men’s Nordic team in Montana is every bit as shocking, and every bit as awesome.
A team featuring four skiers, two of whom generally compete in Nordic combined and the biathlon, finished first, second, fourth and fifth, easily winning the 10K freestyle race at the Montana State Invitational, highlighting the day for New Mexico.
Overall, the Lobos used a massive day on the slopes and trails to move into first place with two events left, the 15K women’s classic and the 20K men’s classic Nordic races. Both will be mass starts. UNM has picked up 434 points so far after getting 358.5 in the season opener. The Lobos have a small lead on second place Colorado, which has 425 points. Utah, which is very strong in Nordic, is lurking in third with 400 points.
It was at Crosscut Mountain Sports Center, formerly Bohart Ranch, where the Lobos put the RMISA, and the rest of the NCAA on notice that they are here to compete and win. While Bozeman may be famous for the Rockin’ R, it was the Rockin’ 4 that proved too much for everyone to handle. Kornelius Grøv won his second straight Nordic freestyle race, and he did it in the interval start race by absolutely obliterating the field. His winning time of 28:10.0 was nearly a full minute ahead of second place finisher Ricardo Izqueirdo-Bernier, who was at 29:07.1.
The tandem of Grøv and Izqueirdo-Bernier has shown early to be formidable, with Grøv finishing first, third and now first and Izquiero-Bernier finishing fourth, eighth and now second. The question was could either of the relatively inexperienced Nordic-only racers in Meland or Berend prove worthy of moving up in the standings to get much needed points. Both emphatically answered yes to that question.
Meland, a biathlete by trade, finished in fourth place at 29:37.0, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Berend, who represented the United States in the 2018 Olympics in Nordic Combined, at 29:37.2. Grøv earned 40 points for the win and Izquierdo-Bernier 37 for second, and Meland grabbed 31 points, a career-best for points, giving UNM 108 points and an easy win in the race.
“There are no words,” said head Nordic coach Christian Otto, who watched his team earn a win in just his second freestyle race. “Korn and Rick were fantastic, but for Ben and Johan to ski like that…I’m so proud of them.”
Otto added, “The women’s race was really good. Great for Brenna to finish 13th, and everyone really skied well. That was fun.”
The Nordic races moved UNM into the lead overall at the time 312-294 over second place Colorado. It was up to the alpine squads to keep UNM there.
The men’s slalom finished first, and the Lobos against had a superb day on the hill. Vegard Busengdal was able to move from fourth after the first run to third place, giving him a 13th career podium, and UNM’s first alpine podium of the season. He scored 34 points for the men’s team, which finished third with 71 points, just four points behind the winner Westminster College.
The big surprise, in what turned into a day full of them, was Alex Barounos. Sitting back in 19th place after the opening run, Barounos made child’s play of a slalom course that proved tricky all the way around. He clocked a 52.58 second run, the second-fastest on the last shift. That catapulted him all the way to 10th place, giving him his first career top-10 finish and a much needed 21 points. The 21 points were a career-high for a race for him, and it nearly equaled the 26 points he scored last season.
Coming in third for UNM, and 16th overall was Olav Sanderberg, good for 16 points. Nick Veth again just missed a top-20 mark, coming in 21st, and Tyler Theis had a bobble on the opening run, and that cost him a 28th place finish.
However, UNM’s 71 points were 12 more than Colorado, pushing UNM’s lead to 30 with the women’s second run all that was left.
And then the lift broke. Seriously. With that, the race by rule reverted to the lone run, meaning UNM picked up 51 points, enough to maintain its lead over Colorado entering tomorrow. Soňa Moravčíková led the team with 21 points and an 11th place finish, missing a fourth top-10 this season. Rebecca Fiegl was next for UNM in 13th, scoring 19 points, and then the Lobos had three in a row in 25th, 26th and 27th in Chloe Margue, Haley Cutler and Katharine Irwin, giving UNM 11 points and the lead.
NOTES: Both teams topped their previous meet giant slalom point totals … the Lobo men’s alpine team won both a giant slalom last year (MSU Invitational) and a slalom race (Utah Invitational) … the track was tricky as 40% of the female skiers didn’t record a finish, while 38.3% of the men didn’t record a finish … New Mexico will be attempting to win its first tournament since the 2015 Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational … UNM’s last win away from home was in 2010 at the Utah Invitational … the men’s alpine team will race again in the slalom, but this time to compete last week’s Colorado Invitational, as weather forced the postponement of that event.