PARK CITY, Utah – Women's alpine senior Mia Hunt of the University of Denver Ski Team has been named the recipient of the NCAA Elite Scholar-Athlete Award at the 2026 NCAA Skiing National Championships.
 
Hunt is a double major at DU in kinesiology and sport studies as well as economics, and she becomes the 10th Denver student-athlete and the first skier to earn the national award from the NCAA. Hunt was presented with the Elite Scholar-Athlete Award on Tuesday evening during the opening ceremonies of the skiing national collegiate skiing championships at Utah Olympic Park in Park City, Utah.
 
Formerly known as the Elite 90, the Elite Scholar-Athlete Award recognizes the spirit of a student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the national championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. It is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships.
 
Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above academically that have participated in a sport for at least two years with their school. All ties are broken by the number of credits completed.
 
Academically, Hunt will be named to the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team for the fourth year in a row (2023-2026) and was previously named to the 2025 Academic All-District Team by College Sports Communicators. She has also earned DU Athletics' Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in each of the previous three seasons.
 
On the snow, Hunt has produced a career season in 2026 as she's ended up on the podium in all four slalom events she's finished. She's produced three runner-up results and a third-place finish, which came on Jan. 12 at the Denver Invitational in what served as her first collegiate podium. She has also placed inside the top 15 in all nine races, with the other five coming in the giant slalom discipline.
 
The Park City, Utah, native was named to the All-Conference First Team this past season by the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association after being an Honorable Mention winner in 2025. In 43 career races, Hunt has produced 16 top-10 finishes and has placed in the top five in six events. The senior made her third career NCAA Championship squad and looks to build off last year when she garnered two second-team All-American awards by coming in seventh in slalom and 10th in giant slalom.
 
Boston Buckberger of men's ice hockey and AJ Francois of men's soccer were the last Denver student-athletes to earn the NCAA Elite Scholar-Athlete Award, with both taking the hardware during the 2024-25 athletic season.
 
For more information on the Elite Scholar-Athlete award winners, log on to https://www.ncaa.org/elitescholarathlete.
 

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