DENVER – As the world continued to return to a sense of normalcy during the COVID-19 pandemic, student-athletes shared locker rooms with their teammates once again and fans resumed filing into the facilities in and around the Daniel L. Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness in 2021-22. Denver's student-athletes picked up right where they left off, displaying high levels of success in the classroom and in competition throughout the academic year.     

Highlighted by the athletic department's 34th overall national championship, below is a summary of the success across Denver's Division of Athletics.    

Athletic Success: 

• Denver finished ahead of all non-football Division I schools in the Learfield Directors' Cup for the 13^th time in the last 14^th seasons, placing 59^th in the overall standings. Men's soccer, hockey, skiing, gymnastics, women's lacrosse, men's golf, women's golf and women's tennis all earned points for the Pioneers in the Directors' Cup.  
• The Pioneers' 417.75 points was their highest Directors' Cup point total since the 2018-19 season. Denver has posted at least 400 points in the standings in each of the last nine campaigns (no standings in 2019-20 due to COVID-19).  
• Denver hockey won its ninth NCAA National Championship in Boston in April, now tied with Michigan for the country's most NCAA men's ice hockey national championships. The national title was Denver's 34^th as an athletic department overall (skiing 24, men's lacrosse 1).  
• DU became the first Big 12 Conference affiliate member to host the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship. It was also the first time that the Big 12 Gymnastics Championship was held on podium, and it was Denver's first time hosting a gymnastics meet that was televised live on an ESPN linear network.  
• Katie Hensien, who was named the National Women's Alpine Skier of the Year, became the 96^th skier in DU history to win an individual national championship, doing so in the women's slalom in March.  
• Eight current and former Pioneers represented the athletic department at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing: skiers Katie Hensien, Andrea Komsic, Amelia Smart, Trevor Philp, Eric Read and Jasmi Joensuu; and former hockey student-athletes Nick Shore and Juho Olkinuora.  
• The Pios' 18 athletic programs combined for a record of 424-289-10 in 2021-22 including 103-51-5 at home.  
• Denver's athletic programs also combined to produce:  91 all-conference selections, 14 All-Americans, 9 NCAA Tournament appearances, 7 conference tournament championships, 7 conference coaches of the year, 5 conference regular-season championships. 
• Women's lacrosse and gymnastics were awarded the University of Denver's Gold Vest Award, which is given annually to an outstanding Pioneers team for excellence in community service, academics, spirit, leadership and athletic performance.
• Cole Guttman and Katie Hensien took home the Male and Female Athletes of the Year at the 85^th Annual Crimson Carpet Student-Athlete Awards Banquet.

Academic Accolades:  

• Five programs earned perfect scores on the NCAA's multi-year Academic Progress Rate report (2017-21): women's soccer, women's skiing, men's tennis, women's tennis and men's golf. 
• Denver had a school-record 10 programs earn perfect scores in single-year APR for the 2020-21 school year (data released in June 2022): men's golf, women's golf, hockey, men's skiing, women's skiing, women's soccer, men's tennis, women's tennis, women's swimming and diving, and women's volleyball. 
• Pioneer student-athletes combined for a 3.57 grade point average in 2021-22, led by a 3.712 combined mark from Denver's 10 women's programs.  
• Denver earned the Summit League's Institutional Academic Achievement Award, given to the athletic department with the highest percentage of eligible student-athletes on the Commissioner's List of Academic Excellence.  
• Seventy four student-athletes were named to the Summit League Commissioner's List, led by the Summit League Team Academic Achievement Award-winning teams of men's basketball, men's and women's soccer, and men's and women's swimming and diving.  
• In September 2021, men's soccer was recognized for having the top men's soccer grade point average in the country for the fifth time in six years (second in 2018-19).  
• Women's soccer made it a clean sweep for Denver soccer for the top grade point averages in the country, earning the honor for the first time in the program's history, combining for a 3.83 in 2020-21.   
• Women's soccer's Natalie Beckman was named Denver's 20^th First Team CoSIDA Academic All-American and earned the athletic department's 55^th Academic All-America honor overall.  
• Women's golf ranked sixth in the country in grade point average and had six student-athletes named WGCA All-American Scholars.  
• This summer, 258 student-athletes earned academic honors from their respective conferences: Summit League: 137, BIG EAST: 82, RMISA: 21, NCHC: 9, Big 12: 9

Fans Are Back:  

• Denver Ticket Sales and Service sold more than 140,000 tickets to athletic events in 2021-22 including 80,000 tickets for patrons attending games at Magness Arena en-route to hockey's ninth NCAA Championship.  
• DU had more than 2,000 season ticket holders across eight ticketed sports in 2021-22. 
• The Crimson and Gold ranked eighth in the country and third in the NCHC in average hockey attendance (4,950). Denver also ranked ninth in men's lacrosse (1,822/game). 
• In a push to sell more tickets through digital media, more than $40,000 of the ticket sales in 2021-22 came from social media platforms and off of home page clicks on DenverPioneers.com.
• Denver hosted and won the 2022 NCAA Hockey Loveland Regional in front of a sold-out crowd of 4,487 at the Budweiser Events Center.

Media Exposure:  

• DenverPioneers.com attracted more than 1.2 million users combining for nearly 2 million sessions and 4.2 million page views across nearly 1,300 stories.  
• Denver's streaming platform Pioneer Vision saw 11,000 views across its broadcasts in 2021-22.  
• The Pioneers were featured on national television 12 times in 2021-22 including ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox Sports 1 and CBS Sports Network.  
• The Crimson and Gold's social media accounts combined for 58 million impressions in 2021-22, nearly a 150% increase from the prior season.  
• The 2022 hockey national championship accounted for 15.1 million total impressions, 2.2 million profile visits, 200,000 engagements, 712,000 page views, 550,000 produced video views and 680 new season tickets sold (between the start of and the two weeks following the NCAA Tournament).  
• Denver also launched the Denver Athletics and Recreation App in September, which now has nearly 1,500 downloads 10 months into its first year.  
• Denver announced partnerships with INFLCR and The Brandr Group to help set student-athletes up for success in the NIL era. In March, Denver expanded its partnership with INFLCR, launching "The Pioneer Exchange", which serves as a central marketplace for NIL information, education, opportunities and reporting.

Sport by Sport Summaries:  

Hockey 

• Won three trophies with its record-tying ninth national championship, third-straight Gold Pan versus Colorado College and second-ever Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions. 
• The team has now made four of the last six Frozen Fours. 
• Junior Bobby Brink recorded 56 points and became the first Denver player to lead the nation in scoring in 40 years (Ed Beers, 1981-82). He was one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award. 
• Cole Guttman became the 101^st member of DU's 100-point club, and Ryan Barrow set a new school record for career games played (168). 
• Began the season by winning their first eight home games, the longest streak to begin a campaign since Magness Arena opened in 1999 and tied for the third longest in school history
• Opened the year on a 15-game (14-0-1) unbeaten streak at home, the third-longest in program history and the longest since the 1967-68 season. The team went 17-1-1 at home during the year and sported a 22-1-1 mark in games in the state of Colorado. 

Gymnastics 

• Jessica Hutchinson became the second Denver gymnast in as many years to be named the Big 12 Gymnast of the Year while also claiming the Big 12 all-around title (Lynnzee Brown, 2021). Rylie Mundell won a share of the Big 12 bars title and was the all-around runner-up; and Momoko Iwai won a share of the Big 12 beam title. 
• Abbie Thompson qualified for the NCAA National Championships on beam, extending Denver's streak of NCAA Nationals with at least one gymnast qualifying to 22. 
• Announced Joy S. Burns women's gymnastics head coaching endowment 

Women's Lacrosse 

• Won the BIG EAST Conference regular-season (third in a row) and tournament (second in a row) championships 
• Reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-straight season and the sixth time in program history 
• Led the NCAA in caused turnovers with junior Sam Thacker leading all players in the category (64) 
• Bea Behrins broke the school record for career games played (82) and goals in a single campaign (71); Abby Jenkins set a new program mark for draw controls in a season (109); Lauren Black set a DU freshmen record for points (74) while her 54 goals were second among first-year players and the most by a BIG EAST freshman since conference realignment in 2014. 
• Raegan Wilson (Canada) and assistant coach Brittany Read (England) competed at the 2022 World Championships while Lauren Black won gold with Canada at The World Games 2022; Brittany Read and volunteer assistant and alumna Molly Little are in their second summer of playing professionally with Athletes Unlimited.  

Men's Lacrosse 

• Earned a 14-12 come-from-behind win at No. 7 Ohio State, Denver's first top-10 road win since the final game before the COVID-19 pandemic at Notre Dame in 2020 
• Ended the regular season with four-straight wins to finish second in the BIG EAST  
• Nine DU grads made Premier Lacrosse League rosters while six played in the National Lacrosse League. The PLL announced it will visit Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium August 5-6 for Week 9 of its 2022 season. 

Men's Soccer 

• In its 11^th NCAA Division I NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, a 24^th minute Kengo Ohira goal gave Denver a 1-0 win over Grand Canyon to send the Pios back to the second round. It was the program's first NCAA win since 2016.  
• Summit League Tournament MVP Kobe Gray made six saves in a pair of penalty shootout wins in the Summit League Tournament, giving Denver its 15^th out of a possible 17 trophies.  
• Won the program's eighth Summit League regular-season title and the program's 10^th Division I conference regular season title overall 

Women's Soccer 

• With an 8-0-1 mark in Summit League play, the Pios earned their 12^th NCAA Division I conference regular-season title including their sixth Summit League crown. 
• Earned back-to-back Power-5 wins with a 3-0 victory over Utah and a 3-1 win over Kansas State 
• Natalie Beckman, Sami Feller, Sydney Sharp and Kaitlyn Glover were named to the 2021 United Soccer Coaches All-West Region Team.  

Skiing 

• Finished third at the 2022 NCAA Championships with only Utah and Vermont placing higher 
• Seven student-athletes earned All-America honors, including five being named to the first team. 
• Senior alpine skier Katie Hensien won the national championship in women's slalom, marking the fifth-straight year that a Pioneer has won an individual national title. 
• Hensien also represented Team USA at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, becoming the first DU student-athlete in 50 years to compete for the U.S. in alpine skiing at the Winter Games (Erik Poulsen, 1972).  

Men's Basketball 

• Posted first double-digit win season and the program's highest finish in the Summit League since 2017-18 
• Seven Summit League wins matches the total of three previous seasons combined. 
• Picked up its first road win since Dec. 11, 2018 with a 63-55 win at Kansas City on Jan. 17, snapping a 42-game losing streak, which was the second longest in the NCAA at the time 
• Coban Porter's 71 3s made ranked eighth out of all freshmen in the NCAA and set a new freshman record for DU in its DI era (1998-pres.) as of March 8. 

Women's Basketball 

• Ranked 12^th in the country in blocked shots per game (5.2) and 22^nd in the country in free-throw percentage (76.7) 
• Played its first quadruple overtime game in program history and its first 3+ overtime game since 2006, defeating Butler 100-94 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in December 
• Won its final two regular-season games to clinch a spot in the Summit League Tournament 

Volleyball 

• Posted seventh season in the last eight with at least 23 wins
• Tina Boe was selected to the AVCA Midwest All-Region Team and was one of two All-Summit League honorees (Lydia Bartalo). Hailey Green was also named Summit League Freshman of the Year. 
• Lydia Bartalo became the third player in program history to record at least 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. 

Triathlon 

• Competed in its first full season and finished fourth at the program's first-ever national championships 
• Won the team event at the Eastern National Qualifier race at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, on Oct. 16. 
• Placed five student-athletes in each of the top-five spots in the women's event at the Oktoberfest Sprint in Longmont, Colorado, on Sept. 19, the team's first-ever race in the state 
• Produced three All-Americans in Freya McKinley, Olivia Ebenstein and Avarie Faulkner with McKinley earning three podium finishes during the year and a top-10 result at the national championship 
• McKinley competed for Team USA at the World Triathlon Junior Championship in Montreal on June 24. Incoming-transfer Clara Normand represented Team Canada as well at the race.

Men's Golf 

• Captured its third straight Summit League Championship 
• Logan Goulding (Coach of the Year) and Jackson Solem (Player of the Year) earned postseason accolades from the Summit League.  
• Narrowly missed advancing to first NCAA Championship since 1960, finishing seventh at the NCAA Regional 

Women's Golf 

• Won the Summit League Championship for a seventh time en-route its 20^th-straight NCAA Regional appearance 
• Swept Summit League postseason awards with Coach of the Year (Martha Richards), Player of the Year (Anna Zanusso) and Newcomer of the Year (Clara Gestsdottir)  
• Set a new Summit League Championship-record for team score (871) while Anna Zanusso set the 54-hole individual scoring record of 213 (3-under) for the league championship 

Men's Swimming and Diving 

• Won its eighth Summit League Championship 
• Ammar Hassan set new Summit League Championship records on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. 
• Marco Nosack was named Summit League Swimmer of the Year, and Alicia Hicken-Franklin was named Coach of the Year. 

Women's Swimming and Diving 

• Won its ninth consecutive Summit League Championship 
• Natalie Arky qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100m and 200m backstroke.  
• Arky was named Summit League Swimmer of the Year, and Alicia Hicken-Franklin was named Coach of the Year. 

Men's Tennis 

• With a perfect 5-0 record in Summit League play, the Pioneers won their seventh Summit League regular-season title and their eighth Division I conference regular-season title overall. 
• Earned the program's first win over a Big Ten program since 2016 when the Pios knocked off Nebraska 4-2 at the Denver Tennis Park 
• The team ended the season ranked 65^th in the country, and James Davis and Matt Summers ranked as the 76^th doubles tandem in the nation. 

Women's Tennis 

• Earned its eighth-straight Summit League Tournament title and its 10^th Division I conference tournament title overall to punch its ticket to its 11^th NCAA Tournament 
• Won its ninth-straight regular-season title including its eighth of a possible eight in the Summit League 
• Reeled off eight-straight wins from Feb. 25 to March 12, including back-to-back Power-5 wins at Utah and against Iowa at the DTP 

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Visit DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports.  

Like Denver Pioneers on Facebook  

Follow @DU_Pioneers on Twitter  

Follow @DenverPioneers on Instagram