Eleven Buffs Earn National Academic Ski Honor

DENVER - A total of 11 University of Colorado ski team members were honored Friday on the 2015 National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team, administered and awarded by the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association.

The team, one of the hardest of its kind to qualify for nationally, consists of those skiers who maintain a 3.5 cumulative grade point average in the class room and also are talented enough to compete at the NCAA Regional Championships, which the Buffs won as a team last week in Alaska.

Senior Rune Oedegaard was honored on the team for the fourth time in his career while Brooke Wales Granstrom eared mention on it for the third time in her three seasons skiing for the Buffs. Juniors Thea Grosvold, Clare Wise and Adam Zika all also earned their third nod to the team. Juniors Henrik Gunnarsson and Jessica Honkonen were both honored for the second time alongside sophomores Roger Carry and Maja Solbakken. Sophomore Camilla Brautaset earned her first nod to the team as did freshman Petra Hyncicova.

Oedegaard is also in graduate school for the Buffs, earning his Master's in Business Analytics from the Leeds School of Business. Brautaset (Open Option), Carry (Open Option), Grosvold (Finance and Accounting), Gunnarsson (Open Option) and Zika (Finance and Accounting) are also in the Leeds School of Business at Colorado.

Granstrom has nearly a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA in Integrative Physiology, a major shared by Hyncicova. Wise is majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering with Solbakken earning her degree in Sociology with and Honkonen is earning degrees in both Psychology and Advertising.

The Buffs are closing in on the end of the college ski season and head next week to Lake Placid, N.Y., for the 2015 NCAA Championships. Eight of the 11 honored above will be part of the 12-skier team the Buffs will send. CU has won the last two NCAA Championships conducted in the east, in 2011 in Stowe, Vt., and 2013 in Middlebury, Vt.