DENVER – A trio of University of Denver skiers has been named to the 2024-25 CSC Academic All-America Division I At-Large teams, College Sports Communicators announced on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Seniors
Andreas Kirkeng and
Sara Rask, and graduate student
Florian Knopf all captured first-team honors, giving Denver one third of the combined skiing honorees this year and three of the four on the top team.
Rask is a first-time honoree while Kirkeng and Knopf have earned places in consecutive seasons – Knopf now on the first team for back-to-back years while Kirkeng was named to the third team in 2023-24.
In total, 13 Denver skiers have now captured CSC Academic All-America recognition, combining for 16 honors. Kirkeng and Knopf are the ninth and 10
th multi-year honorees for Denver and the second and third from the storied ski program. Knopf becomes the first DU student-athlete from any sport to earn multiple first-team career honors.
Denver student-athletes combined for nine CSC Academic All-America Team accolades in 2024-25, the most in a single season in school history and topping the previous record of six set just last season.
DU has now had at least one CSC Academic All-American in each of the last five years and in 11 of the last 12. Over the last two academic years, Denver has boasted 15 combined honors.
The CSC Academic All-America Teams honor the top student-athletes in the nation based on their combined athletic and academic performances. The Academic At-Large teams are open to student-athletes from fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, volleyball, water polo and wrestling. Nominees must hold at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average and have met participation requirements as determined by each sport.
Kirkeng holds a 4.00 GPA after completing his master's degree in applied quantitative finance while also finishing with a 3.99 GPA as part of his undergraduate studies. In 2024-25, he earned top-10 finishes in 13 of his 14 races, placing in the top five nine times and winning five titles.
He capped his Denver career with a fourth consecutive appearance at the NCAA Championships and placed seventh overall in the 20K Nordic freestyle.
The Lier, Norway, native finishes as a four-time athletic All-American and a four-time All-RMISA first-team honoree. He also collected RMISA Most Valuable Skier nods in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Knopf maintained a 4.00 GPA across in his graduate studies while earning his master's degrees in applied quantitative finance. This past season, he qualified for the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row and placed 13
th overall in the 20K Nordic freestyle.
In his second of two seasons with Denver in 2024-25, he earned seven podium finishes and was a four-time runner-up. He started the year with top-10 finishes in his first 11 races and began the postseason with a third-place finish in the 7.5k classic at the RMISA Championships.
The Bernau am Chiemsee, Germany, native captured two athletic All-American honors in 2023-24 and added first-team All-RMISA recognition in each of his two seasons at DU.
Rask graduated with her bachelor's degree in business analytics in June 2025 with a 3.97 GPA, capping a monster 2024-25 campaign that saw her sweep the women's alpine national titles at the NCAA Championships in March. With her two first-place finishes, she became the 19
th Pioneer and sixth Denver woman to sweep at the collegiate nationals.
The Stockholm, Sweden, native recently announced that she will return to the Denver roster in 2025-26 and intends to pursue a master's degree in accounting, technology and analytics.
Rask will enter her final year of eligibility with 15 career titles, which already ranks fifth in Denver history. In total, she owns 27 podium finishes and has placed in the top 10 in all but three of her 41 career races.
A six-time athletic All-American and three-time All-RMISA first-team honoree, Rask served as a team captain in 2024-25. In each of her first three seasons, she earned National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team recognition.
