Grøv Equals Lobo Record with Fourth Freestyle Win
ANCHORAGE, Ak. — Kornelius Grøv equaled a 16-year Lobo record for freestyle wins in a season with his fourth straight victory, nipping Denver’s Eivind Kvale by 0.5 seconds over the 10K course at Kinkaid Park in Alasaka as the men’s Nordic team win its third freestyle race of the season, helping UNM to a fourth place showing after two events of the UAA Invitational.
For Grøv, his win gives him four for the year, and it tied Jimmy Vika’s record of Nordic freestyle wins for a year. Grøv’s four wins on the season is just one behind Vika’s five in 2003 and Martin Kaas’ five in 2010 and he is now tied for third in UNM history for most overall Nordic wins in a career.
Coming in behind Grøv was Izquiero-Bernier, who finished third in earning his fourth podium of the season. Grøv scored 40 points and Izquierdo-Bernier scored 34. UNM just needed a good third finisher and the team got it when Johan Eirik Meland finished 11th, scoring 20 points. Ben Berend was UNM’s other finisher with a 25th place finish. That gave UNM 94 points, easily topping second place Colorado by 15 points.
On the women’s side, it wasn’t as successful, but UNM still picked up a pair of top 20 results and finished sixth with 43 points. The Lobos were led by Savanna Fassio, who finished 17th, and Julie Spets, who finished 19th. They scored 16 and 15 points respectively. Dariya Kuznetsova was UNM’s third finisher, coming in 23rd place, scoring 12 points. Brenna Egan finished 26th and out of the scoring column.
The Lobos have now won seven individual races on the season. The next two events in the UAA Invitational are classical sprints, races that generally aren’t run during the RMISA seasons. The races will take place at Kinkaid Park on Monday.
NOTES: Grøv will get a chance to break the school record for freestyle wins in a season on February 20 at the NCAA West Regional/RMISA Championships in the 10K freestyle interval start at Government Peak, Alaska.