Here we are again at the NCAA 2025 Skiing Championships. Wednesday morning was the beginning of men’s and women’s alpine slalom at Dartmouth Skiway near Lyme Center, New Hampshire. Denver is sitting in second trailing those dreaded Colorado Buffs but there are still three days to go!
The great Day 1 news is that DU senior Sara Rask is the new NCAA Slalom champion! Her teammate, junior Mia Hunt, finished in the top seven finishers as well. DU did not have a qualifying third Alpine qualifier. I’ll explain – DU has a solid overall team this season but will only be competing with 11 skiers on the team, one short, on the women’s Alpine side due to injury. Also, Denver lost one of their finest skiers this season when Denver Alpine star Liv Moritz took a winter leave to compete in World Cup events. (As an aside, in late January, Sophomore Liv Moritz made her FIS Alpine World Cup debut in the Italian Alps – pretty cool!) Anyway, Denver finished with 64 points today in women’s slalom – third overall.
Our men’s side were not as fortunate and DU finished 11th, 19th and 20th for a total of 43 points. grad student Loic Chable was Denver’s best men’s finisher.
As it stands after Day 1, CU sits in first place with 148 points and DU in second with 107 points. Utah and the University of Vermont are tied in fourth with 87 points. While this is ‘unofficial’, you can bank on these finishes to stand after Day 1 at Dartmouth SkiWay.
Yes, it is a bummer to be one skier short while competing for the overall team title but our Nordic skiers (cross country) appear to be significantly improved this season and may be able to pick up the slack – we’ll find out tomorrow. That should put us in the fight for our 25th national team title but we can ill afford an ‘off day’. We need to have our Alpine men’s side pick up some of the slack in Giant Slalom to pick up needed team points.
Rain is expected in the area so the schedule below is subject to change:
Photo: Sara Rask, Instagram
Wait a minute, or XC team is expected to pick up slack? I’ll believe it when I see it. Half kidding, but our women’s XC team has put up some really bad results in recent years. Kind of surprised that we are in 2nd place overall while missing an alpine skier. Sure would have been better to have a replacement qualifier for the alpine team, but perhaps that is easier said than done. Let’s go DU!
And congrats to Sara! What a skier, and now national champion. 🏆
Great skiing by Sara today. Unfortunately, the elephant in the room is not qualifying a full team. The Nordic team is significantly stronger and the most well rounded since the ‘18 championship team. That should provide a nice boost, but the self inflicted wound will do no favors. Anything can happen – it’s ski racing. Let’s go Pios!
IMO, Moritz taking a leave of absence is selfish. Did we have enough notice to try and bring in a replacement to at least get us some additional Alpine points? Tim, what does Moritz accomplish by skiing World Cup? I have no idea. Maybe money
I would not say that Liv was “selfish” in going to World Juniors. It was known when she was recruited to DU, so no surprise to anyone on the team. The World Cup/World Juniors is the highest level of competition in skiing, equivolent to “making the big leagues”. DU was not the only school to lose top skiers to that this year, Utah is down 2 skiers and CU is down 1.
Another note, Liv did not race any college races this season, so she will be able to redshirt and have an additional year at DU. And in terms of “replacing” her, DU was in a position to have a 3rd women’s alpine skier before a late injury that prevented her from racing. For NCAA Championships, qualifications are based off of season long points, not team performances.
It looks like DU’s idea of XC picking up the slack is finishes of 25, 27, and 35 for the women. Unbelievable. How can these results be acceptable to the historically best collegiate ski program, and why does it happen every goddamn year now? I feel bad for the alpine team: doing well for the team, and then XC ruins DU’s chances every year. Do the athletic directors at DU not care about this?
And the mens XC is not doing that much better, no one in the top 10. Will they blame it on conditions or wax, when this happens every year?