University of Denver’s Sara Rask Photo Credit: Bob Eastaugh

The NCAA National Ski Championships are beginning soon in Lake Placid, New York. The men’s and women’s giant slaloms are scheduled for Wednesday, March 8th and the slaloms are planned for March 10th. Both the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) and Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) have announced the names of the athletes who qualified for NCAA Nationals.

The 1980 Olympics ski area, White Face Mountain, hosts the alpine races. The NCAA nationals are a special event. There are no FIS points to earn and if an athlete skis for a school competing for a team title, individual success means very little. It is beautiful to see people ski only to maximize their point contribution to their schools. The NCAA Nationals is also the event where you see enthusiastic live support for the nordic teams from their alpine teammates and vice versa.

Uniquely, it is common to see teammates at the races fully engaged who did not qualify for the championships. Skiing for a team has provided great moments in ski racing careers for many collegiate athletes. The following is the list of the 68 fortunate few who qualified this season.

Notably, skiing is the only NCAA sport in that women and men compete together as a team.

Eastern EISA alpine women and men qualified for NCAA nationals

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Western RMISA alpine women and men qualified for NCAA nationals

May the best team prevail.