RMISA: UNM Wins Utah Invite

The University of New Mexico won the overall Utah Invitational in Soldier Hollow today.

“Considering all of the illness we have been battling this week, this is a great win,” said Lobos head coach Fredrik Landstedt. “One of our top men’s racers, Tor-Hakon Hellebostad, did not race all weekend and Polina Ermoshina was struggling with illness all week and still skied.”

Colorado’s Buffaloes were the fastest cross country team for the second weekend in a row. They also scored the most points at the MSU Invite last weekend at Bohart Ranch.

Friday’s 5/10Km classic was stormy with 40Mph winds, and searching for kick right around 32F, some teams raced on hairies. Saturday’s 15/20Km freestyle was nicer with a little sun poking through the clouds above the trails above Soldier Hollow.

Eliska Hajkova of CU beat Denver’s Antje Maemple in Friday’s 5k by 7.6 seconds, followed by Kate Dolan, also of DU. Antje took back the top podium spot on Saturday to beat Hajkova by 38.9 seconds, with Alexa Turzian of CU in third. Antje has continuously been a dominating force on the RMISA nordic scene since last weekend at the MSU Invite.

It is important to mention that on Friday the US Ski Team’s Morgan Arritola crossed the finish line first, followed by Liz Stephen, also of the USST, 24 seconds back. Hajkova was 55 seconds behind Arritola in third overall.

On Saturday Arritola finished first 33 seconds ahead of Stephen, with Maemple 93 seconds back in third.

On the mens’ side, Martin Kaas won Friday’s 10Km classic race by 25 seconds, followed by Bernhard Roenning of MSU and Miles Havlick of Utah. On Saturday the top spot when to Micheal Schallinger of UAA, followed by Matt Gelso of CU, and Martin Kaas of NMU.

Independent skiers Garrott Kuzzy of the US Ski Team and Leif Zimmermann of BSF were also in the mix for a sprint into the last 100 meters, when Schallinger threw in a nasty jump skate up the last hill before the other skiers had a chance to break. Kuzzy finished second 2.2 behind Schallinger, followed by Gelso 3.2 seconds back and Zimmermann 5.6 seconds back.

The nordic-only team points for the Utah Invite ended up looking like this:

CU 451 (W: 220, M: 231)

CU 412 (W: 235, M: 177)

UNM 383 (W: 159, M: 224)

UAA 269 (W: 196, M: 173)

UU 359 (W: 166, M: 193)

MSU 347 (W: 170, M: 177)

UNR 283 (W: 156, M: 127)

Friday’s official results are here.

Saturday’s official results are here.

All other results, including splits and team scores are available here at Summit Timing.