The 2025 NCAA Championships concluded Saturday with Nordic Freestyle. Denver moved up to fourth in the team standings but trailed the eventual team champion, Utah, by 206 points. And yes, that is a significant margin. Colorado was second and host Dartmouth finished third. Obviously, all Pioneer ski fans wanted a better team finish but DU also had some outstanding individual performances.
On the men’s side, senior Andreas Kirkeng finished seventh to complete his distinguished All-American Nordic career with DU. Grad Student Florian Knopf finished thirteenth and senior Elijah Weenig finished twenty-first.
On the women’s side, grad student Lea Wenaas finished just off the podium in fourth place. Freshman Eve-Ondine Duchaufour finished fifteenth and sophomore Maja Moland finished thirty-seventh. DU finished sixth and Utah, always a force in the Nordic discipline, won the event to cement their team title.
Four of our six Nordic competitors from this season’s team will be graduating. Denver will have a chance to evaluate, recruit and develop skiers that may help the Pioneers generate stronger team results in the future. However, as a Denver fan, I am grateful, as are most Pioneer fans, to support the hard work these current athletes put in for the University of Denver.
Also, a special shoutout to Sara Rask and her double titles in slalom and GS. As usual, Go Pioneers!
Photo: Courtesy of Denver Athletics
Appreciate the coverage. At least Colorado didn’t win. Seems like Sara Rask was the lone bright spot for DU. And what a bright spot she was. Also, good job to the 4th place women’s finisher today. As article says, kudos to all skiers for the amazing amount of work they put in. All tremendous athletes. But coaches need to be put in notice that our Nordic performance is not up to the proud standard of DU skiing. This year is not an isolated thing, it has been that way for years now.
Honestly, the DU Nordic NCAA performances continue to cripple the team on a yearly basis. The Nordic recruiting is clearly brutal and nothing ever seems to change. They simply can’t blame the ski wax anymore…
It’s time to re-evaluate the program and figure out why the Pioneers are no longer competitive, and find a way to fix it.
With less than 10 fully competitive ski programs nationally, DU skiing should be always be in the hunt.
Indeed, Swami, indeed. And if they were to ever blame conditions or wax, that would be lame AF. It’s their job to use the right wax, and be ready for the conditions,. Just like the 25-30 skiers who finish ahead of some of our skiers. Or is it just DU that is hampered by conditions?