DENVER -- University of Denver skiers Monica Hübner (Garmisch-Partenkrichen, Germany)  and Sebastian Brigovic (Rijeka, Croatia) have been named the 2015 Alpine Athletes of the Year by the coaches of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association.

Voted on by the Association's membership, awards are for the Alpine and Nordic Coach of the Year and Athletes of the Year for both alpine and Nordic, men and women.  

Hübner completed an outstanding freshman season by winning four slalom events including the women's slalom at the NCAA Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. In every one of her slalom events this season she reached the podium, including two runner-up finishes and a third place showing. In the giant slalom, Hübner reached the podium twice including a second place finish at the NCAA Championships, thus earning her two first-team All-America honors. She was the RMISA Women's Alpine MVP, as first-team All-RMISA and ranked first on the slalom list and sixth on the GS list for NCAA qualifying. 

Brigovic was dominant and consistent all season long. In his 13 finishes, he finished in the top eight each time. He ended up with three victories, two of them in giant slalom and one in slalom and eight total podium appearances. He was a two-time first-team All-American after his runner-up showing in the giant slalom and fourth place finish in the slalom at the recently completed NCAA Championships. Brigovic was the RMISA Men's Alpine MVP, first-team All-RMISA and the top ranked GS qualifier out of the RMISA and No. 3 on the slalom list.

"These awards are voted on by the coaches of the Western region," said Denver head coach Andy LeRoy.  "Those coaches have watched Monica and Sebastian outperform our circuit all season, and to earn their vote, is definitely something special."

The Nordic Athletes of the Year were Rune Oedegaard from Colorado and New Mexico's Emilie Cedervarn.

The coaches of the year were Montana State's Kevin Francis for Alpine and Colorado's Bruce Cranmer for Nordic.

It was an excellent season for the RMISA member schools as six finished in the top nine at the NCAA Championships with Colorado winning the National Championship just ahead of defending champion Denver. Utah grabbed  third, New Mexico fifth, Montana State seventh and Alaska-Anchorage ninth. It was Colorado's 20 National Championship, two behind Denver for the most national titles.

The 2016 NCAA Championships will return to the Western region and will take place at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, hosted by CU.

 

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