DU’s ski team is fighting it out at Lake Placid, New York for their 25th NCAA Team Championship. On Wednesday, Denver finished second on the podium for Day 1 of the four day event, trailing only the Colorado Buffalos. However, mixed results on Day 2 sent DU into a precarious 3rd place position. Denver has little margin for error in the final two days of competition.
Tim’s an optimistic guy and he’s putting a very nice home-fan spin on it, but there is almost no chance that DU will win an NCAA Skiing title this year. There is just not enough talent or depth to do it, as DU only qualified 11 skiers for Lake Placid this year, down from the usual 12.
Fact is, the women’s Nordic program at DU is a shell of what it once was, and it has been really substandard for some years now. Even when DU has strong alpine or strong men’s nordic performances, the women’s Nordic skiers are generally laggards.
In a sport where only about five programs (DU, CU, Utah, Vermont, Dartmouth) out of 20+ that compete have enough qualified skiers to contend for an NCAA title, it’s a shame that the Pios have been off the top level of the podium since 2018.