February 7, 2010 (Red River, New Mexico) – The University of New Mexico Invitational’s 10km freestyle course was too narrow to allow for a mass start. So, the organizers solved the problem by using wave starts by team, similar to team time trials in cycling. The end result was that New Mexico worked together so well as a unit that the Lobos secured the top four spots in the men’s 10km freestyle race as the Nordic men squad pulled off an amazing 1-2-3-4 finish

Kaas won his fifth race of the season and second freestyle race of the year, edging out senior Tor-Hakon Hellebostad by 0.4 seconds in second place. Freshman Pierre Niess placed third three second later with junior Simon Reissmann in fourth another 2.4 seconds later. The team earned a perfect 141 points becoming the first school to score a perfect 141 points in any discipline under this year’s new scoring format. The last 1-4 sweep is believed to have been accomplished Denver’s men’s Nordic team early last decade.

Colorado was second as a team in the freestyle, led by senior Matt Gelso’s fifth place effort in 26:27.0. Three juniors followed for the Buffs, Vegard Kjoelhamar (8th, 26:36.9), Patrick Neel (10th, 26:39.7) and Jesper Ostensen (11th, 26:42.7). A side note, that while New Mexico leads the west in individual wins with 13, Colorado is the leader in top 10 finishes with 64.

In the women’s 10km freestyle, Nevada’s Maria Graefnings won her first collegiate race, zooming around the course in a 29:16.8 time, winning by over 38 seconds. CU was led by junior Alexa Turzian, who captured sixth in 30:58.1. Top CU frosh skier, Joanne Reid, did not travel with the team to get caught up on school after she missed two weeks to participate in the Nordic Junior World Championships in Germany, where she was America’s top junior in the distance events.

“We’re licking our wounds a bit, but at the same time, we’re excited for the second half of the season,” said CU Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer. “There are no other races like these two that we do all year, so there’s nothing to worry about. The elevation, the narrow trails, the format, all that. Just like in alpine, where some like soft snow and others hard ice, some excel at elevation and others struggle. So many little things added up to conspire against Eliska, some sickness, lack of experience at altitude being the major factors,” he added. “There was nothing stellar about our weekend, but we still had three qualifiers in the top 10. So nothing to feel terrible about, we just need to leave this behind and move forward. Plus we’ll have Joanne back the rest of the year which will be a big boost. So in a sense, it was a surprise we finished as high as second with all that happened to us in alpine and the Nordics being short and also dealing with illness,” Rokos added. “There’s no reason to press the panic button, and you have to give credit to New Mexico. They skied very well and whooped everyone this weekend.”

After taking next weekend off, the season resumes Feb. 19-21 with the University of Nevada Invitational, set for the Auburn, Nevada., and Donner’s Summit, California, area.

With files from RMISA Skiing, University of New Mexico, Colorado University
Full Results here .

Results (brief)

Men
1. Martin Kaas, UNM, 26:17.0;
2. Tor-Hakon Hellebostad, UNM, 26:17.4;
3. Pierre Niess, UNM, 26:21.3;
4. Simon Reissmann, UNM, 26:23.7;
5. Matt Gelso, CU, 26:27.0;

Women
1. Maria Graefnings, UNR, 29:16.8;
2. Antje Maempel, DU, 29:55.2;
3. Katie Dolan, DU, 30:06.3;
4. Polina Ermoshina, UNM, 30:43.6;
5. Kaelin Kiesel, MSU, 30:51.6;

Team Scores (Final)
1. New Mexico, 961
2. Colorado, 801
3. Denver, 785
4. Utah, 713
5. Montana State, 694
6. Nevada, 658
7. Alaska-Anchorage, 573
8. Wyoming, 208