BOULDER, Colo.—Denver’s Monica Huebner, Utah’s Veronika Mayerhoffer and Colorado’s Richard Rokos and Bruce Carnmer were all honored by the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association Thursday as it announced winners of its annual Coach of the Year honors as well as its inaugural selections for Skier of the Year.
Huebner was honored as the National Women’s Alpine Skier of the Year and Mayerhoffer was named National Women’s Nordic Skier of the Year. Rokos earned the Alpine Coach of the Year honor and Cranmer earned the Nordic Coach of the Year honor.
Huebner, just a freshman, had a dominant season for Denver that ended with her atop the podium as the individual NCAA Champion in the slalom event and she was also the runner-up in the giant slalom race there, earning two first-team All-America honors. She earned the Women’s Alpine MVP and was named the Women’s Alpine Skier of the Year for the RMISA while also earning first-team honors, helping the Pioneers to a second place finish at the NCAA Championships.
The top seeded women’s alpine skier out of the RMISA, Huebner finished her rookie year finishing outside the top 10 just once in 14 races. She ended the season with four wins, all in slalom, and had nine podium appearances. In her seven slalom races, she was on the podium all seven times with those four wins, two runner-ups and one third place. She had two podiums in GS races, including the NCAA Championships.
Mayerhoffer, a freshman, capped a brilliant season for the Utes by claiming the individual NCAA Championship in the freestyle race and finishing second in the classic race, earning two first-team All-America honors in the process. She didn’t finish outside the top 4 in any of her 12 races on the season, winning four and taking second five other times. She had one third place and two fourth place finishes on the season.
The No. 2 ranked skier out of the RMISA for women’s Nordic, she earned the Women’s Nordic MVP honor out of the RMISA as the only skier to finish in the top five of all 10 races leading up to NCAA Championships. Her win in the 5K freestyle race at the NCAA Championships was by an impressive 13.2 seconds and her second place finish in the 15K classic race was by just over one second in a sprint finish.
Rokos capped his 25th season with Colorado, claiming the eighth NCAA Championship in his time there. He broke a tie with the Buffs’ Bill Marolt, who won seven titles, all consecutively from 1972-78, for most titles at Colorado and is now third all-time behind Denver’s Willie Schaeffer, who won 13 titles from 1954-70 and Utah’s Pat Miller, who claimed nine championships from 1981-97.
With a slim seven point lead entering the final day of the NCAA Championships, Rokos’ six alpine skiers all safely completed two runs apiece to help the Buffs secure their third championship this decade and third straight in the east, also winning in 2011 and ’13.
Cranmer led the Buffs dominant Nordic squad, who once again claimed the mythical Nordic championship at the NCAA Championships, racking up 306 points in Nordic action, 35 more than any other team. Five of the Buffs six Nordic skiers at the NCAA Championships both earned two top 10 finishes and all claimed two All-America honors.
The Buffs’ men’s Nordic duo of Rune Oedegaard and Mads Stroem finished 1-2 in nine of the 10 races leading up to the NCAA Championships and then finished 2-3 and 3-4 in the two races at NCAAs as the CU men outscored all other teams at the Championships. Cranmer has seen his team score more points on the Nordic side than any other team in seven of the last 12 NCAA Championships, the only seven times the Buffs have accomplished that feat since skiing went coed in 1983.
Middlebury’s Robert Cone won the National Men’s Alpine Skier of the Year and Dartmouth’s Patrick Caldwell the National Men’s Nordic Skier of the Year.