DENVER – The University of Denver ski team had one of its most successful NCAA Championships in recent years in 2024 with nine different Pioneers picking up 13 All-American accolades on the March 6-19 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
This year's nationals marked the most individual hardware that DU had earned at the championships since its title-winning 2018 meet when each of the 12 skiers picked up at least one trophy and 17 in total. Six Pioneers had won six All-America awards in the 2020 NCAA Championships before the meet was cancelled at the halfway point due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Freshman
Christian Soevik and graduate student
Florian Knopf led Denver in 2024 with pair of First-Team honors in their national championship debuts. Soevik placed third in men's alpine giant slalom and fourth in slalom, while Knopf came in fifth in the men's Nordic 7.5-kilometer freestyle interval start and runner-up in the 20K classic mass start to end the meet.
Four other Pioneers earned their first ever All-American accolades with freshman
Liv Moritz also being named to the first team after coming in fifth in the women's alpine giant slalom.
Thomas Hoffman of men's alpine (sixth in slalom),
Krystof Zatloukal of men's Nordic (10th in 20K classic) and
Selma Andersen of women's Nordic (10th in 7.5K freestyle) made their first career All-American list.
All three DU women's alpine skiers were recognized with national honors as senior
Nora Brand and sophomore
Sara Rask joined Moritz, as they both picked up two All-American awards for the second consecutive season. Brand and Rask were second-team members in giant slalom—placing seventh and ninth respectively—and placed in the top five to be selected to the first team in the night slalom, with Brand in third and Rask tying for fourth.
Junior
Andreas Kirkeng of men's Nordic picked up his third All-American accolade in as many NCAA Championships by earning second-team nods after a 10th-place result in the 7.5K freestyle.
All-Americans are determined based on the skiers' finish at the NCAA National Championships (finishers 1-5 made the first team; finishers 6-10 made second team). The Pioneers' 13 All-Americans were tied for the second most with Utah (eight individual skiers) and was one behind leader and national champion Colorado, who had 14 awards spread across 10 athletes.
As a team, Denver placed third overall in one of the tightest NCAA Championships in recent years, coming just 78.5 points behind first place. It was the fourth straight season where the program finished in the top three at nationals and the program's 491 points earned were its most since totaling 604 points during the team's 2018 championship victory.
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