Friday, February 4, 2011 – by Curtis Snyder, RMISASkiing.com Results Available On Schedule/Results Page RED RIVER, N.M. – The host and defending champion University of New Mexico Lobos took a commanding 57 point lead at the mid point of the 2011 Jade Enterprises / New Mexico Invitational here Friday. The Lobos won three of the four races individually and finished second in the other.
The Lobos also won two of the four races and finished second by a point in a third.
In women’s slalom action, the Lobos finished third behind Utah (125) and Alaska Anchorage (112) despite only having two skiers finish on the strength of Anne Cecilie Brusletto’s win in a time of 1:37.89. Utah’s Tii-Maria Romar finished second in 1:38.59 while Alaska Anchorage’s Kayla Fry also earned a podium appearance in third in a time of 1:39.11. Utah’s Anna Kocken (1:31.19) and New Mexico’s Kate Williams (1:39.64) rounded out the top five.
On the men’s side in the first slalom race, the Lobos’ Juho-Pekka Penttinen won the race in a time of 1:34.87, followed by the next four skiers separated by just over three-tenths of a second as Montana State’s Chris Barber took second in 1:35.57 while the Lobos’ Christopher Acosta (third, 1:35.63) edged out teammate Petter Brenna (fourth, 1:35.87) for the podium appearance and Colorado’s Andreas Haug took fifth in a time of 1:35.90.
New Mexico won the race with 135 points with three of the top four finishers while Colorado took second with 109 points with two other top 10 finishers aside from Haug. Montana State (98) and Alaska Anchorage (95) scored just below the century mark.
Over at the Enchanted Forest Nordic Center, Utah’s Maria Graefnings won her fifth straight race this season in a time of 16:51.7 in the women’s 5K classic race. New Mexico’s Martine Weng took second in 17:18.7 with Denver’s Kate Dolan also seeing the podium in a time of 17:29.5. CU’s Eliska Hajkova took fourth in 17:32.5 and Utah’s Sarah MacCarthy rounded out the top five in a time of 18:06.6. Utah edged New Mexico in the race, 113-112.
In men’s 10K classic action, New Mexico’s Martin Kaas won in a time of 28:41.4 while Colorado’s Jesper Ostensen (second, 28:58.3) and Denver’s Kristian Soerlund (third, 29:02.4) earned podium appearances. Utah’s Didrik Smith finished fourth in 29:16.5 and Montana State’s Bernhard Roenning earned a fifth place finish in 29:20.6 in a rarity the top five skiers all came from different schools. New Mexico won the race with 113 points, with Denver (105), Montana State (101) and Utah (101) all hitting the century mark and Colorado (98) just missing it.
Action tomorrow concludes the meet with another set of slalom races and the Nordic freestyle races. Both freestyle races will be 10K affairs while the alpine teams will hit the slalom course again because the mountain here isn’t sufficient for a giant slalom run.
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