The 2018/2019 season will be the last for NCAA skiing at the University of New Mexico (UNM), following a unanimous vote by the Board of Regents to cut skiing, along with two other teams, on Friday evening. The Board’s decision is effective immediately. If nothing changes, then the men’s soccer team, women’s beach volleyball team, and men’s and women’s ski teams will play out this season, then be eliminated on July 1, 2019, at the...
(Note: This article was updated Thursday afternoon with information about a pending lawsuit and quotes from a New Mexico state legislator and a representative of Southwest Nordic Ski Club.) * * * The men’s and women’s cross-country ski teams at the University of New Mexico (UNM), previously saved following a groundswell of support in spring 2017, may be on the chopping block again. A meeting has been scheduled for this Friday, Aug. 17, to consider...
(Note: This article has been updated to include the hiring of Miles Havlick as the University of Utah’s head nordic coach, which was announced Monday afternoon.) There have been several notable career changes in North American nordic skiing this summer. Here’s a quick look at who moved where: Robert Lazzaroni: from U.S. Ski & Snowboard to Salomon. Last week, Salomon announced via a press release that Lazzaroni, of Park City, Utah, will join its staff as...
A World Junior Championships and World U23 Championships skier for Finland who had racked up top-10 finishes in her country’s competitive national-championships field, Krista Niiranen moved to the American Southwest last year. “I had been studying law in the University of Lapland in Finland, but for the last season I transferred to the University of New Mexico and represented the UNM Ski Team,” she explained. Niiranen made a splash on the SuperTour and NCAA circuits,...
This week’s workout comes from University of New Mexico (UNM) sophomore Julia Devaux, who recently wrapped up her second season with the UNM nordic team. Devaux, 23, is originally from Grenoble, France, and grew up training in Villard de Lans. She was previously a member of the French national team but sought out new motivation to continue skiing. “[UNM Head Coach] Fredrik [Landstedt] gave me the opportunity to come at UNM 2 years ago,” Devaux wrote in an email. “I chose UNM because...