Men’s Alpine Wins CU Slalom

Colorado Invitational Final Results

BOZEMAN, Mont. — It will look funny on a map, but due to weather, the men’s slalom, the final event of the Colorado Invitational, took place in Montana at Bridger Bowl.  That worked out just fine for the Lobos as Vegard Busengdal had his second straight podium and UNM put three in the top 11 to win the men’s slalom to cap off that invitational.
 
Overall the team finished sixth, but easy scored it’s most points in an opening meet since the scoring rules changed, and it kept the momentum on UNM’s side as the team clearly was firing on all cylinders. 
 
It was Busengdal who once again led the way, coming in second after a third-place finish yesterday.  The win marked his 14^th career podium and second in a row.  Overall he netted UNM 37 points, and Olav Sanderberg had another great showing with a sixth place finish to earn 27 points.  That meant for UNM to win, it would need a big second run from someone, and once again Alex Barounos jumped up and delivered. 
 
One day after a blazing second run moved him from 19^th to 10^th, he again tore it up with a second run that was within 0.4 of being the fourth-best in the go.  That place Barounos 11^th, just missing a second straight top-10, but he equaled his career-high with 20 points.  That gave UNM 84, and that was enough to hold off Montana State, which was second with 80.
 
Barounos scored 40 points on the weekend, topping the 26 he scored all of last year, he, along with the resurgent Nick Veth, have given UNM five potential scorers in every race this year.  Tyler Theis, who had been UNM’s third scorer for the opening weekend, was fourth in 18^th place, and Nick Veth was 20^th, giving him another second top-20 finish on the weekend after having just one in his first three seasons.
 
The Lobos next meet is in Red River at the UNM Invitational February 1-2.