Buffs Lead Lobos At UNM Invitational

Friday, January 30, 2015 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

RED RIVER, N.M.—No. 1 Colorado leads No. 5 and host New Mexico by just 10 points at the midpoint of the 2015 UNM Invitational, as the first of two slaloms and Nordic classical races were contested here Friday.

The Buffs compiled 286 points through the four races, ahead of the Lobos total of 276. No. 3 Utah (257) and No. 2 Denver (252) are both very much in the mix with all four teams within just 34 points of each other. No. 9 Alaska Anchorage is fifth with 223 points and No. 10 Montana State sits in sixth with 205 points.

The day began with the women’s 10K classical race, which was won by Utah’s Veronika Mayerhoffer, who earned her first collegiate victory in a time of 38:10.7. She won the race by 42.1 seconds over UNM’s Emilie Cedervarn (39:02.8) with CU’s Maja Solbakken (40:04.9) another minute back of her to round out the podium. The Utes took the best advantage of the rare team start as behind Mayerhoffer’s win, the Utes also took spots 4-5-6 with Sloan Storey (40:59.0), Josefin Nilsson (41:25.3) and Natalia Mueller (41:27.7) all having impressive races.

Utah scored 101 points while Colorado and New Mexico both score 81 points, a piece.

In the men’s race, the familiar duo of Rune Oedegaard and Mads Stroem from Colorado once again finished 1-2, which they’ve now done in all five Nordic races this year, in the men’s 10K classic race. Oedegaard won his fourth straight race in a time of 33:11.3, 25.2 seconds ahead of Stroem (33:36.5). Denver’s Moritz Madelener took third in a time of 33:45.1 to hit the podium in the third spot for the fourth time in five races this year.

Montana State’s Sawyer Kisselheim finished fourth in 35:14.7 for his third straight top 10 finish and first top five finish of the season while Alaska Anchorge’s Etienne Richard rounded out the top five in a time of 34:18.4. For Richard, it’s his first top 10 and top five finish of the season.

The Buffs won the race as a team on the strength of that 1-2 finish, compiling 92 points with UAA scoring 76 as Clement Molliet finished one spot behind Richard in sixth place in a time of 34:20.9. MSU (66), DU (64), UNM (62) and Utah (61) all finished within five points of each other.

Meanwhile over at the alpine hill, Denver and Westminster both went to work, as those two combined for the top seven finishers in the men’s slalom race and six of the top seven finishers in the women’s race.

DU’s Espen Lysdahl, the defending NCAA slalom champion skiing his first race of the college season, didn’t disappoint, edging out teammate Trevor Philp by just a quarter second (1:30.71 to 1:30.96) to earn the victory. Westminster’s Giulio Bosca was third in 1:31.59 with DU’s Sebastian Brigovic just three-hundredths back at 1:31.62 to earn the final podium as Westminster’s Tim Lindgren (1:31.67) was fifth followed by two more pioneers, Sebastian Brigovic (1:31.70) and Erik Read (1:31.75).

The hotly contested race was close, as Read’s seventh place time was just 16-hundredths of a second off the podium. Denver scored 108 points in the race while Westminster was second with 80 points. The host Lobos, who finished 8-9-10 behind the Pioneers and Griffins, was third with 75 points.

The women’s slalom race was much of the same for those two schools, as DU’s Monica Huebner won her second straight slalom race, this time by well over a second, coming in with a two-run time of 1:34.28. Westmintser’s Anna Goodman was second in 1:35.56 while Utah’s Ana Kobal hit the podium in a time of 1:35.70, just 2-hundredths ahead of the Griffins’ Sofija Novoselic (1:35.72). Westminster’s Ann-Kathrin Bruenning took fifth (1:35.80) just ahead of DU’s Kristine Haugen (1:35.83) with the Griffin’s Tonje Sekse finishing seventh in 1:36.13.

Westminster won the race with 97 points while Denver was second with 85. Colorado’s 64 points edged out New Mexico’s total of 58.

Action continues Saturday with the running of the 5K women’s and 10K men’s freestyle races at Enchanted Forest and another set of slalom races on the alpine hills.