There is no easy way to say this. Thursday was a fatal day for Denver’s hope to earn another NCAA team title in 2025. It was a Nordic discipline, Classic, once again that placed DU in a deep hole. Denver women could only collect 10 points in Nordic Classical and the men, not much better, with 44 points as the Pioneers tumbled to 5th place. The home team, Dartmouth, took the overall team lead with 267.5 points. Denver trails the leader by 106.5 points. Colorado, Utah and Vermont stand between Dartmouth and DU, making the chances of a comeback nearly impossible.
Lea Wenaas was DU’s top finisher for the women in 25th as DU was 11th in women’s event points. On the men’s side, Elijah Weenig finished 12th as the men landed in the 6th overall place in classic.
Not much to add other than there are two days left for DU to earn some more individual All-American awards. I am looking forward to seeing what Denver can do in Giant Slalom Friday and see if Sara Rask can nail down her second individual title. Also, I am certain that DU will come out charging out of the gate on Saturday in the men’s and women’s 20k Freestyle event.
Disappointing, yes. But people around the program are doing everything they can to elevate Nordic results to include the team, coaches (especially Nordic coaches Rogan Brown and Eric Houck) and alumni Otto Tschudi. It just looks like it will take time and more development.
Photo: Courtesy NCAA
The DU nordic team is the biggest disappointment in all of DU’s athletic department. The ski team used to be a point of pride for DU. It still is, to some extent, with some excellent alpine skiers. But the Nordic results in the NCAA championships are consistently embarrassing. I don’t know whether DU has slashed funding for the program, or if recruiting has fallen off for other reasons. But to finish 25, 27, and 35 on the big stage is a disgrace. I’m not criticizing hard working athletes, just whoever is running the program and getting these athletes prepared for the big event. There was a time, when DU finished 1-2-3 in a men’s nordic race, couple of decades ago. The AD needs to pause his victory laps for other sports, and figure out what is wrong here. Or maybe he just doesn’t give a shit? Will the generous efforts of Otto help? Don’t know. But how difficult is it to recruit top Nordic skiers to Denver and coach them up? Answer: it’s not that difficult.
Only 1 meet a year matters in this NCAA sport.
Repeated failure for DU every year since 2018.
Time for new coaches and athletes…
Very disappointing. We’ve gone dry since 2018. Too long! Changes need to be made.