DENVER, Colo.—Thirteen Lobos were among the 276 student-athletes from 29 colleges and universities that were named to the 2015 National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team, announced and awarded by the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association.
One of, if not the, most difficult academic teams of its kind nationally, to make the team student-athletes must maintain a cumulative 3.5 grade point average in the classroom and have competed in one of three NCAA Regional competitions.
For the Lobos, Kyle Beling, Jessica Gnüchtel, Taylor Grauer, Sean Horner, Mark Miller, Anni Nord, Christian Otto, Sara Ottosson, Juho-Pekka Penttinen, Mats Resaland, Mateja Robnik, Eva Sever Rus and Sydney Staples all were named to the team. Nine of those student-athletes (Gnüchtel, Horner, Otto, Ottosson, Penttinen, Resaland, Robnik, Sever Rus and Staples) are competing for UNM this week at the NCAA Championships.
New Mexico’s 13 honorees was tied for sixth nationally behind Alaska Anchorage (20), Williams College (19), Utah (15), Northern Michigan (14) and New Hampshire (14).
The 29 colleges and universities come from one of three conferences nationally, the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA), the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) or the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA).
All institutions that sponsor varsity skiing as part of the NCAA are members in one of those three conferences. Those conferences do have associate members who have teams that are not NCAA-affiliated and student-athletes at those institutions are eligible for the National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team.
The NCAA Championships conclude the collegiate ski season on March 11-14 in Lake Placid, hosted by St. Lawrence University.