Dartmouth Qualifies 12 Skiers for NCAA Championship

HANOVER, N.H. — The NCAA announced the complete field of skiers — 74 men and 74 women — that will compete at the Skiing Championship in Lake Placid, New York, on March 8-11 hosted by St. Lawrence University. Dartmouth was one of just four schools to qualify the full complement of 12 skiers to compete for the national title.

Since the Big Green last won the championship in 2007, teams from the West have won 13 of the last 14 crowns (Denver six, Utah four and Colorado three). Vermont is the only Eastern team to interrupt that dominance, but that was 11 years ago. Dartmouth, along with three of those four schools, will send a dozen skiers, while Denver will have 11. Four other schools — Alaska Anchorage, Middlebury, Montana State and New Hampshire — will have 10 competing in Lake Placid.

Of the 12 Big Green skiers competing, 11 are either freshmen or sophomores, and only three are returning to the NCAA stage, two of whom were All-Americans last year. Senior Gwen Wattenmaker (Olympic Valley, Calif.) of the women's alpine team and sophomore Oliver Morgan (Hanover, N.H.) for the men picked up second-team honors in the slalom and giant slalom respectively, and sophomore Luke Allan (Ottawa, Ontario) returns to the championship for the men's Nordic team as well.

The women's Nordic team boasts the top-ranked skier in the East in Ava Thurston (Waterbury, Vt.), who has won her last three classical races and reached the podium in six of the seven individual carnival races she entered this winter. Joining her next week will be sophomore Nina Seemann (Wheelock, Vt.), ranked sixth in the East with three podiums to her credit, along with sophomore Jasmine Drolet (Rossland, British Columbia), the 2022 EISA Women's Nordic Skier who only recently returned to the trails since recovering from an injury.

Sophomore John Steel Hagenbuch (Ketchum, Idaho) provided a lift to the men's Nordic team the second half of the season and enters the championship ranked third in the East on the strength of his two freestyle victories the last two weeks. He will have good company in the Green and White with two others ranked in the East's top 10 — Allan (seventh) with two podiums to his name, and freshman Jack Lange (Lyme, N.H.) who is 10th.

On the slopes, the women's alpine team is coming off a win in the giant slalom at the EISA Championship on the very mountain that will host the NCAA alpine events, even without the East's top-ranked skier in sophomore Allie Resnick (Vail, Colo.). But Resnick will be ready for action next week as she reached the podium in each of her five races, winning four. Complementing her will be her classmate, Carly Elsinger (Richmond, Vt.) picked up her first collegiate victory last week in the giant slalom, her second podium of the season, along with the veteran Wattenmaker.

Freshman Oscar Zimmer (Oslo, Norway) leads the men's alpine squad as the third-ranked skier in the region, earning three podiums and a victory in the giant slalom at the Harvard Carnival. Morgan isn't far behind the rookie in the rankings (fifth) with three podiums and a GS victory of his own while finishing in the top five on six occasions. The final skier to join the field is freshman Cooper Puckett (Steamboat Springs, Colo.), ranked sixth thanks to three second-place finishes this winter, two in the slalom.

The NCAA Championships, webcast live on NCAA.com, will begin with an alpine event on Wednesday, March 8 at Whiteface. The cross country races will take place at Mt. Van Hoevenberg on March 9 and 11 with the other alpine race sandwiched between the two.

Schedules