While many DU students were spending time at home or on vacation with friends and family, the Denver alpine and Nordic ski teams were training full time at Winter Park, Colo.
“Our training camps in Winter Park during November and December are extremely important for the team’s success,” said head Nordic coach Dave Stewart. “This is the optimal time of year to train in high volumes, typically up to four hours a day with focus on technical improvement.”
Most Denver athletic teams are able to train and practice on campus, but the ski teams have a slightly different situation. Over winter break, the athletes traveled approximately 70 miles northwest and spent more than three weeks in rented condos and houses at Winter Park.
“I think it’s a pretty awesome opportunity,” said freshman alpine skier Devin Delaney. “Although it’s the holidays, we are all together, and we are the only school that gets that time off.”
It’s Denver’s unique quarter system that allows for the ski teams’ unusual preseason routine. Because DU students are on break from before Thanksgiving to after New Year’s, the ski teams are capable of focusing solely on training during this time.
“The quarter system is our biggest advantage over every other school,” said head alpine coach Andy LeRoy. “We get over a month on the hills without juggling the books. We make the most of it.”
With atypical spring-like weather the past few weeks, including sunny skies and warm temperatures, it seems that the ski teams might have difficulty training. However, according to LeRoy, it’s quite the opposite.
“The warm weather has given us one of the best training years possible because we need conditions as hard as possible,” said LeRoy. “The trails we ski on are man-made. We’ve been blessed with sunny skies, and we’ve been able to ski more days this year because the snow is so hard.”
In addition to ideal snow conditions, training for an extended period and living on-site at Winter Park has several other benefits for the athletes, according to Stewart.
“The three weeks we spend living and training at 8,500 feet provide a natural ‘altitude effect,'” said Stewart. “That helps everyone on the team perform better both at high altitude and sea level, both of which are critical during our race season.”
According to LeRoy, the alpine team is suffering multiple injuries at this point in the season, with their only three upperclassmen on the sidelines.
Senior Lindsay Cone, Denver’s most decorated female alpine skier, injured her knee in November and is out for the entire season. On the men’s side, senior A.J. Avrin and junior Grant Jampolsky are also injured, and LeRoy said they could potentially miss the whole season as well.
Regardless of the injuries, LeRoy has high hopes for the season and looks to establish Denver as a continuing dominant force. DU has been the NCAA champions four of the past seven years and recorded a 2nd-place finish in 2007.
“We’re looking to get back on top,” said LeRoy. “The bar has been set pretty high, and we like that challenge. We are excited to get out there, build momentum and be champions come March.”
The Pioneers made their first showing last week at the RMISA Alpine Qualifier as part of the University of Colorado’s Spencer J. Nelson Memorial Invitational. The competition took place at Eldora Mountain Resort, Colo.
On Friday DU recorded three top 15 finishes, all from freshmen. On the women’s side, Devin Delaney finished 10th after her two giant slalom runs. Luke Laidlaw and Max Marno finished 10th and 13th, respectively, on the men’s side.
Saturday, during the scored portion of the event, the Pioneers finished fourth with 182 points, trailing first-place Colorado (239), Utah (236) and New Mexico (190). Denver freshman Espen Lysdahl recorded a third-place finish in the men’s giant slalom.
