The Pioneers will attempt to claim their 19th NCAA Skiing Championship title this week.

Denver will have six men and six women competing in Steamboat Springs.

For the men the three alpine skiers are John Buchar, Todd Ligare and Francesco Ghedina.

The three Nordic skiers are John Stene, Rene Reisshauer and Havard Selseng.

The DU women for alpine are Florence Roujas, CK Pedersen and Jenny Tank and Anna-Karin Maeki, Ingvild Engesland, and Karin Nilsson are the Nordic women.

Last year Reisshauer swept both the freestyle and classical events in Nordic and helped DU capture its 18th national title.

This year Reisshauer hopes for another podium finish but believes it to be considerable task.

Asked about last year’s competition Reisshauer commented, “A race like that has to have so many things come together. It’s something you can hope for but it’s not something to pressure yourself to reach again. A podium result would be a good goal right now.”

Denver’s largest threat is Colorado, which has come on strong in the latter half of the season.

“This year is definitely harder because CU has such strong athletes. It won’t be like last year, where we won by fifty points, but we definitely have a good chance to win it,” said Reisshauer.

Engesland, a transfer student from Norway, said “I hope to be in the top five.”

She added, “It would be nice to get another title.”

Knut Nystad, head Nordic coach, feels good about the upcoming week.

“I think that we have a great chance to take home another championship, we have won before and we have proven that in big championships. We can do well, but there is always the chance for failure, but I think that we are well prepared and we have a good team, a very seasoned team with good experience,” he said.

Denver has not been winning down the stretch.

However, DU does have an advantage coming into the championship since it is one of only three schools that qualified skiers for all 12 spots on the rosters.

Close rival CU was only able to qualify two alpine skiers instead of three which will leave CU at a disadvantage in the final standings.

The skiers will hit the slopes of Steamboat Wednesday as the alpine men and women compete in the giant slalom.

Then on Thursday the Nordic skiers will compete in the classical race.

The women’s is 5K while the men’s is 10K.

On Friday the alpine event will continue with the men and women’s slalom which consists of two runs.

Saturday will see the conclusion of the championships with the men freestyle 20K and the women’s freestyle 15K.

The awards ceremony will follow the Nordic events on Saturday.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

arguably go down as one of the best coaches in NCAA hockey history.

“Its always been more important for me to enjoy the feelings of others, enjoy watching others celebrate and walk across the stage on graduation,” said Gwozdecky.

Gwozdecky has no plans for the NHL anytime soon and loves coaching at the college level, especially at Denver.

“He is such a great coach because he gives you an opportunity to play as a freshman,” said Gauthier.

He added, “Most schools don’t let their freshman play as much. He brings out the best in you no matter what position you are or what you do.”

Paul Stastny, Ryan Dingle, Gauthier and Peter Mannino are all important to winning a championship.

But the man behind the bench is equally important.

With two national championsips, it is evident Gwozdecky done a great job making the University of Denver one of the premier hockey programs in the country.

“I always went into coaching with the idea that I really wanted to help, I wanted to pass on what I had learned, I felt that I had some things to give back to the game.”