OUT OF THE GATE
NCAA circuit’s
Olympic hopefuls
For the University of Denver ski team, it was a
summer to remember.
After stunning the NCAA circuit with an unexpected defense of their national championship
crown in Sunday River, Maine, last winter, the
DU Pioneers fortified their chances of a three-peat in 2010 with a huge summer signing: the
women’s 2009 NCAA giant slalom champion,
Lindsay Cone, transferred to DU from New York’s
St. Lawrence University. Cone, a former U.S. Ski
Team athlete from Killington, Vt., will ski and play
varsity golf for the Pioneers.
“I want to be part of a successful team, where I
can be pushed by my teammates and also contend
for an overall NCAA title,” said Cone in a phone
interview shortly before hitting the links one afternoon in October. “There wasn’t much support
for skiing at SLU. Here at DU, every aspect of the
program is quality and professional — and because skiing has a strong history of success, there’s
a lot of support for the team.”
Cone also said that she’s loving life west of the
Mississippi. “Living so close to a major city has
been a treat, and it’s been awesome to have the
mountains in our backyard,” said Cone. “It’s also
going to be nice to have early-season training right
up the road, rather than having to travel here from
across the country.”
Aside from new additions, members of the 2009
NCAA Champion Pioneers were honored by Ma-
jor League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies before the
first pitch against the San Diego Padres on May
30 at Coors Field. “It was an awesome day,” said
the DU head alpine coach, Andy LeRoy. “We got
to hang out on the field, watch batting practice
and warm-up, meet some of the players, and take
a bow in front of a stadium crowd.”
LeRoy said the only off-season sore spot is that
the team hasn’t heard from President Obama.
“[After we won NCAAs in 2008], President Bush
invited us to the White House ... Maybe it’s be-
cause the economy is bad, but we haven’t gotten a
call from Obama yet.”
The summer was a
real bummer, though, to
members of the Univer-
sity of Nevada Reno ski
team, who were notified
that their NCAA ski rac-
ing affiliation will likely end after the 2010 season.
“In June, because of the economy, the athletic de-
partment here came down with a pretty large hit
— a 34 percent reduction in operating budget that
came through with state legislation,” said UNR’s
head alpine coach, Evan Weiss, by phone. “In or-
der to balance the books, the ski team was cut on
the basis of not being a Western Athletic Confer-
ence team.”
“Initially, it wasn’t even looking like we’d be able
to continue this year,” said Weiss. “But the athletic
director came through and agreed to at least pay
the coaches’ salaries this season. At the same time,
we have to raise money to cover 100 percent of our
team’s operating budget for 2009-10 ... To move
past this season, we’re faced with the task of rais-
ing a half million dollars.”
At DU and UNR, the warmest months usher in wildly
different news for the ski teams BY BRYCE HUBNER
A TALE OF TWO SUMMERS
The DU squad shows off its championship
trophy at Denver’s Coors Field.
Trying to juggle new recruits, gradu-
ates, and the difficulties of a down
economy is tough enough — but those
aren’t the only challenges NCAA pro-
grams are facing this winter. A handful
of schools may lose their best athletes
to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter
Games.
At the University of Alaska-Anchor-
age, nordic coach Trond Flagstad has
already lost one of his top female ath-
letes. Sadie Bjornsen, who finished
third in the women’s 5K classic at last
year’s NCAA championships and com-
peted at the 2009 FIS Junior World
Championships, has taken a year to try
for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
On the other side of the country, Dart-
mouth program director and nordic
coach Cami Thompson says her three
best women — Ida Sargent, Sophie
Caldwell, Rosie Brennan — have taken
the fall trimester away from school
with Olympic hopes.
CU nordic coach Bruce Cramer says
one of his best men, Reid Pletcher, has
his sights set on Vancouver, too. “Reid
skied very fast last year in the sprint
events at U.S. National Championships
in Alaska,” says Cranmer, “and though
we all know it’s very tough to make
it, he’s got his eye on the Olympics.”
Pletcher was the youngest American
finisher in the top 10 in the 1.5K classic
sprint at the 2009 U.S. Nationals.
The most likely NCAA skier to make
the Games may be a Norwegian alpine
racer from DU. Pioneer Leif Kristian
Haugen had a pair of podiums at the
2009 NCAAs, and at New Zealand’s
National Championships in early Sep-
tember, he put the hurt on a few World
Cuppers by winning the GS and taking
second in the slalom (he scored 8. 47
points in the GS, by the way). Haugen
then flew to Denver for fall classes be-
fore heading to the Soelden World Cup
opener for his first ever start on the big
stage: he not only remained standing,
but nailed down a top- 30 result and
scored World Cup points.
Next stop, Vancouver? — B.H.
