Colorado Takes Lead At New Mexico Invitational

Saturday, February 20, 2016 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

RED RIVER, N.M.—Colorado used 1-2 finishes in both men’s races and took the lead at the midpoint of the 2016 Drew Judycki Memorial Jade Enterprises New Mexico Invitational here at Red River Ski Area and Enchanted Forest Saturday.

The Buffs racked up 344 points and own a 28 point lead over Utah (316) with Denver taking third with 278 points. The host New Mexico Lobos were fourth with 265 points with Alaska Anchorage (183) and Montana State (175) rounding out the NCAA teams. Associate members Westminster (133), Wyoming (79) and Colorado Mountain College (12).

The day opened up at Enchanted Forest and the men’s 10K classic. CU’s Mads Stroem won in a time of 29:36.5, about 20 seconds ahead of teammate Petter Reistad (29:56.1). For Stroem, it’s his third win of the season while Reistad finished as runner up for the second time. Utah then swept the rest of the top five with Niklas Persson taking third in 30:27.9, Kevin Bolger fourth in 30:51.7 and Nick Hendrickson fifth in 30:52.1.

The Buffs edged the Utes by five points, 99-94. CU’s third scorer was Jackson Hill in 10th place.

On the women’s side, Denver’s Linn Eriksen also won her third race of the season in a time of 19:54.3, the only sub-20 minute time on the women’s side. She won the race by just under 36 seconds over Colorado’s Ane Johnsen (20:30.2). Utah then placed two more in the top five with Veronika Mayerhofer hitting the podium in a time of 20:36.3 and Natalia Mueller taking fourth in 20:38.9. Alaska Anchorage’s Mackenzie Kanady rounded out the top five in a time of 20:40.4.

Denver also placed Aja Starkey sixth and Taeler McCrerey seventh to win the race with 92 points while Utah was second with 83 and Colorado third with 76.

Over at Red River Ski Area, the men completed their day first and Colorado matched its Nordic performance with the top two finishers as Henrik Gunnarsson won his second straight slalom race in a time of 1:38.91 ahead of teammate Max Luukko (1:39.43). Westminster had a pair in the top five with Jonas Nyberg taking third in 1:39.58 and Giulio Bosca fifth in 1:40.20. Between them was New Mexico’s Carl-Johan Oester in a time of 1:40.06.

Colorado also had Kasper Hietanen in eighth place as the Buffs put some separation between themselves and the field, scoring 100 points, 32 more than Denver’s total of 68.

Utah took care of business in the women’s slalom race with two podium performances led by Julie Mohagen, who won in a time of 1:34.59. Mohagan also won her second straight slalom race and has finished first or second in all three slaloms she’s finished on the season. New Mexico’s Courtney Altringer took second in 1:35.30 with Utah’s Roni Remme taking third in 1:35.35. Westminster’s Anne-Solene Bregou was fourth n 1:35.98 and Denver’s Kristine Haugen rounded out the top five in 1:36.09.

Utah’s 91 points was 12 ahead of host New Mexico’s total of 79.

The New Mexico Invitational concludes on Sunday with 5K freestyle races on the Nordic side and another slalom race on the alpine side. That will conclude the 2016 regular season. Next week teams head to Beaver Creek and Minturn for the RMISA Championships.