RMISA Giant Slalom Qualifier (Colorado) Results
NEDERLAND, Colo. — No podiums? No problem for The University of New Mexico ski team. The alpine squad picked up six top-10 finishes, including four on the women’s side as the Lobos led to the way in the opening race of the season, the initial RMISA giant slalom qualifier at Eldora Mountain Ski Resort, hosted by the University of Colorado.
The RMISA (Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association) hosts two extra giant slalom qualifiers that help accrue points towards NCAA qualifications. These races are held in years in which UNM hosts the Jade Enterprises/UNM Invitational, which will happen this year February 1 and 2, as Red River Ski Area cannot host a giant slalom, just slalom races.
All RMISA teams will compete in the giant slalom again on Thursday, this time as an official opening event of the Colorado Invitational.
On the men’s side, Tyler Theis and Vegard Busengdal turned in top-10 finishes, while for the women, it was Rebecca Fiegl, Antonia Wearmouth, Soňa Moravčíková and Haley Cutler. New Mexico’s six top-10 finishes were two more than any other team in the field. It probably should have been seven top-10s, but Katharine Irwin, who finished second in the giant slalom at last year’s NCAA championships, skied out early in her second run after sitting in fourth place after one.
| Men’s GS Qualifier | Women’s GS Qualifier |
|---|---|
| Tyler Theis 5 | Rebecca Fiegl 4 |
| Vegard Busengdal 8 | Antonia Wearmouth 5 |
| Olav Sanderberg 14 | Soňa Moravčíková T6 |
| Alex Barounos 22 | Haley Cutler T9 |
| Nick Veth 24 | Chloe Margue 16 |
| Thomas Anderson 25 | Katharine Irwin DNF-2 |
It was the men who opened the season first, heading down for an 8:30 a.m. opening run. The Lobo men didn’t have the greatest of opening runs, with only Theis in the top 10 after the first pass. Theis sat seventh after one, with Busengdal sitting 12th, the only other Lobo in the top 20. Busengdal had never finished lower than 12th in his two-year career in any completed race, so 12th was low for him.
Olav Sanderberg was the only other Lobo in the top 30, coming in 23rd after the opening run, with Alex Barounos, Nick Veth and Thomas Anderson 29th, 31st and 34th respectively.
But it’s two runs, not one, and the Lobo sextet absolutely blitzed the slopes on the second run. Despite the second run all the way around being slower by an average of two to three seconds, all six UNM skiers gained positions in the final standings. The course really slowed as the second run went on, giving an advantage to the skiers that finished between 20th and 30th, which didn’t include Barounos as he was 29th among collegiate skiers but 32nd overall.
Still, it didn’t matter. Anderson, one of two rookies on the men’s alpine side, turned in the 20th best second run to move from 35th to 25th overall. Barounos had the 22nd best run, moving him from 30th to 22nd, and Veth had the 24th, catapulting him from 32nd to 24th.
The more runs on the course, the slower it got, but Sanderberg, the other newcomer, turned in the 10th best run of the second go to earn a top-20 finish at 14th. Busengdal, an All-American a year ago, finished the second right behind his teammate for the 11th best run, moving him into the top 10 at eighth.
The left Theis on the board, and Tyler, one of several seniors on the squad, delivered. He came in at 59.09, which was the sixth-best run, and that coupled with his opening run to move him all the way up to fifth, equaling his career-best finish, which he accomplished twice last year.
After the men’s two runs, it was time for the women, and UNM’s skis burned up the Eldora track. The Lobos opened the morning run with five in the top 10, including Cutler, who sat tied for second, putting her in a position to top her career-best finish, which was seventh last year. Behind Cutler, Irwin sat fourth, Fiegl was sixth, Moravčíková seventh and Wearmouth was 10th. Margue was the lone Lobo outside the top 10 in 25th.
For the second run, Margue posted a blazing time that of 1:01.31, and that time would hold up over 74 skiers as the second-best time in the second run. That left Margue in second for a while before she finally settled in 16th overall, moving into the top-20. Wearmouth sitting in 10th was the next Lobo skier, and she nearly matched Margue, coming down with the fourth-best time to move into first. Wearmouth survived three skiers to stay first, until her teammate Fiegl clipped her but 0.2 overall to sit 1-2-3 as Moravčíková came in right behind them.
Eventually they were surpassed to finish fourth, fifth and sixth (actually a tie for sixth), with Cutler tying for ninth. It was extremely tight as the difference between places six through 10 was 0.02 seconds.
NOTES: Fiegl’s best finish prior to her fourth-place finish was fifth, done four times last year, but just once in the giant slalom (at Montana State) … Theis finished fifth in the first two giant slalom races last season … Fiegl’s fourth-place finish was the best opening race finish by a Lobo women’s alpine racers since 2015 when Karoline Søvik Myklebust finished fifth in the slalom at Utah … Busengdal now has 21 top-10 finishes in his career.