It is that time of year again – the NCAA National Ski Championships in Park City, Utah began today. Utah was recently selected to host the championships when host Montana State’s snow conditions were deemed inadequate. The event was kick-started with Alpine giant slalom(GS) at Utah Olympic Park this morning/afternoon. DU had early tough luck. Denver’s best skier, Sara Rask, had a did-not-finish (DNF) on her first Giant slalom run, putting a dent in the Pioneer team score. In general, the winning all-around national championship team usually takes advantage of all 12 skiers to gather points. However, DU had several strong performances to stay in contact with CU and Utah, trailing by less than 20 points at the end of Day 1.

In the first event of the day, women’s Giant slalom (GS), Denver’s top skier – grad student Sara Rask, the defending national champion, was a DNF. Cecelia Pizzinato finished 9th with Mia Hunt 12th in the first of two runs. Denver fell to 6th place in the event, trailing its main rivals CU and Utah by 20+ points. This was a tough early blow for the Pioneers in an event that should have been a point-getter for Crimson & Gold. It was a huge blow to Rask who petitioned the NCAA for extra eligibility in order to compete for Denver this season. Fortunately, there is still slalom for Rask to look forward to Friday.

Hunt had a fantastic second run, moving all the way up to third, gaining nine spots. Pizzinato finished 11th. Despite the loss of Rask’s points, DU jumped to third after a Utah skier failed to finish in the second run. Montana State University took over the lead while Denver only trailed CU, 71 to 54. (If DU had a high Rask finish, DU would have likely held the GS women’s lead.)

On the men’s GS side, Denver was third after the first run, trailing Utah and CU. Adrian Hunshammer had the best finish in 7th place. Christian Soevik and Christian Soevik finished 11th and 16th, respectively, for the Pioneers. Adrian Hunshammer and Christian Soevik moved to 8th & 9th, respectively, following the second run. DU’s Pietro Motterlini finished 21st. Utah and Colorado placed two skiers each in front of Denver to build a team lead over DU.

CU finished Day 1 men’s & women’s GS with 137 points. Utah stood in second with 133 points. Denver was third with 108 points. With three days to go, trailing by less than 20 points from the top spot, Denver is still within striking distance. A strong Nordic effort tomorrow could reel in CU and Utah.

Nordic begins tomorrow at Soldier Hollow with a Classic interval start. It’s no secret that Nordic has been DU’s Achillies heel. New Nordic head coach Eliska Albrigtsen has been tasked with turning around DU’s fortunes. She has coached national champions in the past and knows how to coach athletes to achieve peak performance at the right time. Both the men’s and women’s sides have shown improvement during the season. Now, we will see if they have shown enough improvement to compete for an overall team title at the NCAA Championships. The pressure on Nordic is even greater after today’s GS results.

Note: I know that most DU fans want a 25th team title but another impressive individual result was achieved this week by senior Mia Hunt. Hunt was named the recipient of the NCAA Elite Scholar-Athlete Award at the 2026 NCAA Skiing National Championships. That is a HUGE honor and she is the first DU skier to receive such an award!

Top photo courtesy of DU Athletics