Buffs Qualify Full Squad For NCAA Ski Championships

INDIANAPOLIS —The NCAA Tuesday announced the 148 student-athletes from 21 schools that will participate in the 2016 NCAA Ski Championships, the 64th annual championship, hosted by the University of Colorado in Steamboat Springs, Colo., from March 9-12. CU qualified a full 12-skier squad.

The Buffs squad will be on the younger side with just five upperclassmen, including four seniors and one junior to go along with three sophomores and four freshmen with five Buffs making their NCAA debuts. The dozen Buffs this season combined for 13 race wins, 32 podium appearances, 49 top five finishes and 78 top 10 finishes.

CU won the New Mexico Invitational and finished second at the Montana State and Utah meets and third in the CU Invitational.

A quick look at each of the 12 Buffs selected.

Arnaud Du Pasquier, Senior, Men's Nordic
Du Pasquier skied in 10 races so far for the Buffs this season and has nine top 20 finishes to his credit with six finishes in the top 15 and three in the top 10. He's finished both classic and freestyle races in the top 10.

Thea Grosvold, Senior, Women's Alpine
A senior making her fourth NCAA Championship appearance, Grosvold hit the top 10 twice, top 15 six times and top 20 a total of 10 times. She finished all 12 regular season races and has now finished an amazing 53 of 54 career races.

Henrik Gunnarsson, Senior, Men's Alpine
A senior making his fourth straight NCAA Championship appearance and the No. 1 seeded skier out of the RMISA, Gunnarsson is enjoying his best regular season as a senior. He won two races, his first two career wins. He hasn't finished lower than 10th in slalom and 14th in GS all season. He has four podiums and seven top 10s in 11 finishes this season.

Jessica Honkonen, Senior, Women's Alpine
A senior making her fourth NCAA Championship appearance with multiple All-America honors under her belt, Honkonen finished nine of 12 races this season with a pair of top 5 finishes and nine results coming in the top 14 with seven top 10s. She has a top five finish in both GS and slalom this season.

Petra Hyncicova, Sophomore, Women's Nordic
A consistently top performer, she participated in six of 10 races in the regular season, missing both the UNM Invitational and RMISA Championships participating in the Under 23 World Cross Country Championships in Romania. In those six finishes, she had five top 5s and hit the podium in third place in the classic race at Utah.

Ola Johansen, Freshman, Men's Alpine
A freshman who earned men's alpine MVP from the RMISA this season, he finished nine of 10 races prior to the RMISA Championships, which he missed after an injury he suffered in training the day before regionals began. In the nine races he finished, he won two races, was runner up three more times and had six total podium appearances. He didn't finish lower than sixth in any race and was top four in eight of those nine finishes.

Ane Johnsen, Sophomore, Women's Nordic
A sophomore who is competing at NCAA Championships for the second time. She missed the Utah Invitational and the final race at RMISA Championships and in the other seven races, she had six top 10 finishes including three in the top six and her career best finish of second in the classic race at New Mexico.

Jesse Knori, Sophomore, Women's Nordic
A third-year sophomore who's making her first trip to NCAAs, Knori participated in seven of the 10 regular season races and had three top 10 finishes and one top five performance, her career best at the RMISA Championships. All three top 10 finishes came in classic races.

Max Luukko, Freshman, Men's Alpine
A freshman who has put a stellar season in the books, he has finished all 12 races this season and has one win, five podiums, eight top 5s and nine top 10s in 12 races. In GS, he had consistently finished between third and sixth all season. He sandwiched those results in slalom races. The first three slalom races, he finished between 11th and 18th, but then he caught fire in slalom, finishing with a win and two second places in the season's final three slalom races.

Petter Reistad, Freshman, Men's Nordic
Reistad made an immediate impact in his first season on the men's Nordic squad, finishing all nine races in which he competed in the top 7. He was runner up three times, twice in classic and once in freestyle, and had six top five finishes.

Mads Stroem, Junior, Men's Nordic
Stroem continued his brilliant career by earning the RMISA Men's Nordic MVP. He won six races, including the last four sweeping the races at both New Mexico and the RMISA Championships, where he won the races by a combined 80 seconds. He has two other runner-up finishes, taking first or second in eight of 10 races on the season. In his career, he has won 12 career races, ranking fifth in CU history.

Tonje Trulsrud, Freshman, Women's Alpine
Trulsrud finished 10 of her 12 races on the season, taking home two wins, four podiums and nine top 10 finishes in those 22 races. Traditionally a stronger slalom skiers, she has been extremely good in GS races this year with both race wins, the second place and third place all happening in hat disciplines.