A strong finish in the Nordic events wasn’t enough for New Mexico to crack the top three in the Montana State Invitational which concluded today.
After a sluggish start to the MSU invite with the Alpine events, UNM overcame a big deficit to climb the rankings at the invitational.
The women's Nordic squad took first place in total points for the team’s events and the men’s Nordic squad finished in third as UNM finished in fourth overall with a final score of 501.
Nordic
The first race for the Nordic team, which kicked off the weekend's events, was the women's 15k Classic. As usual, the Lobos top-three performers for the first event were Emilie Cedervärn, who finished third, Eva Sever Rus (5th), and Kati Roivas (6th), which helped hoist the women's Nordic squad into a first-place finish.
The women's 5k freestyle wasn't much different for the Lobos' trio, as Cedervarn had a second-place finish, with both Sever Rus (6th) and Roivas (12th) finishing in the top twelve.
The men's Nordic squad put together a solid outing, too, in hopes of climbing the standings as they had 2 skiers place top-five in the men's 20k Classic. Aljaž Praznik finished in third and Petteri Vaherkoski cracked the top five with his fifth place finish.
The last event for the men's Nordic squad was the 10k freestyle, where the men didn't record as strong of an outing. None of the Lobos finished top-ten, with the closest placing coming out of Praznik who finished eleventh in that event.
Head coach Fredrik Landstedt said in a statement that he was proud of how the Lobos' Nordic team performed as a whole.
“It was a great day for the Lobos today,” Landstedt said in the release. “I'm really happy with how everyone raced. Kati moved up throughout the race to finish sixth. Our lead guys stayed in the front 15 for the first half of the race. 32F and snow all morning made the wax conditions interesting. It was great to see it come together today.”
Alpine
For the Alpine team, the events weren’t as close.
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Sara Ottosson had an eight-place finish for the women's slalom event while Sydney Staples having the next best finish at thirteenth-place in that event.
The women's giant slalom was the better of the two races for the women's alpine squad, as Katharine Irwin took home a seventh-place finish and her first top-ten finish of her career.
The men's alpine squad finished seventh in total points for their set of events.
The Lobos head off to Steamboat Springs, CO. for the start of the University of Colorado Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational that begins on Jan. 22.
Matthew Narvaiz is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @RealMattNarvaiz.
