After coming up short last season by taking third in the NCAA Championship meet, the University of Denver ski team has set its sights back on being on top and winning a record breaking 18th national title.
This year’s competitions begun Jan. 5 and 6 with the Utah Invitational.
The team took a first place ranking into the second day of competition and then finished the 10-team competition with a dominating performance, with 12 Pioneers finishing in the top 20 in their respective events.
DU beat No. 4 University of Colorado by 80 points and No. 1 University of Utah by 82 points.
Nordic captain Hennie Kashiwa, a junior, described the winning margin as “unheard of.”
Aside from strong showings from some of the new recruits, DU’s veterans in both the Alpine and Nordic events also did quite well.
Junior Florence Roujas swept the women’s alpine events and there was second-place finishes from Norwegian sophomore Pia Rivelsrud in the women’s Giant Slalom and Dominik Schweiger in the men’s slalom.
Women’s captain senior Tara Hamilton had the best showing for the Nordic team, finishing in fourth-place in the 5K freestyle.
The team last won a national title in 2001, but has always maintained prominence within the sport.
The Pioneers started this season ranked No. 2 in the country by Ski Racing Magazine.
Kashiwa said much of this year’s potential success is following the school’s recipe for past championship years: recruiting talented foreign-born student-athletes.
Kashiwa said, “This year’s team is young and composed of skiers from six different countries, and so far, we have come together as a team really well and have great chemistry.”
Aside from the men’s alpine team, each of the other three squads have at least one freshman who, according to Kashiwa, will have a significant impact on the team’s chances this season.
Some of this year’s newcomers who will play a key role include freshman John Stene from Norway, and two first-year transfer students, Haavard Selseng, also of Norway and Rene Reisshauer from Germany.
All three belong to the men’s Nordic team.
On the women’s side, freshmen such as the alpine team’s Karine Falck-Pedersen from Norway and German-born member of the Nordic squad, Julia Swieder, should help the team achieve its goals.
Kashiwa did mention that if the team were not to win the championship this season, that it would not be a failure.
But winning it is still the team’s main goal.
“This year is not all about winning,” said Kashiwa, “but all of the members of the team are getting along and the team is packed with really strong skiers, so I don’t see why we aren’t capable of winning it all.”
The only home meet of the season for the team is the Denver Invitational.
It will be Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 at Winter Park ski resort and at Snow Mountain Ranch on day two.
