Downing, Izquierdo-Bernier Earn National Honors

DENVER, Colo. —The United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association Thursday announced the winners of its annual National Coaches and National Skiers of the Year, as voted on by the association’s membership, and New Mexico earned a pair of honors.
 
Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier was named the Men’s Nordic National Skier of the Year, and Joe Downing was named the National Alpine Coach of the Year.  Overall, three schools are represented among the six winners, with two from each Dartmouth, New Mexico and Vermont.  The winners are:
 
Women’s Alpine Skier of the Year – Laurence St. Germain, Vermont
Men’s Alpine Skier of the Year – Tanguy Nef, Dartmouth
Women’s Nordic Skier of the Year – Katharine Ogden, Dartmouth
Men’s Nordic Skier of the Year – Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier, New Mexico
Alpine Coach of the Year – Joe Downing, New Mexico
Nordic Coach of the Year – Patrick Weaver, Vermont
 
Izquierdo-Bernier, a senior from Montreal, Quebec, was the Individual NCAA Champion in the Men’s Classic race at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt., last month. He also finished fourth in the Men’s Freestyle race to earn two first-team All-America honors.  He won two races on the season and finished in the top 10 in 11 of 12 races with seven podium appearances.  He was second in both the classic and freestyle at the RMISA Championships.
 
Downing, who finished his sixth season as the alpine coach at New Mexico and his first heading the entire program, led the Lobos to a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, a fourth-place regular season RMISA finish and third-place finish at the RMISA Championships.
 
St. Germain, a senior from Saint-Ferreol-Les-Neiges, Quebec, won both the giant slalom and slalom Individual NCAA Championships last month at Stowe, Vt., helping the Catamounts to a second place finish.  She was especially dominant in the slalom race, winning by the largest known margin in NCAA Championship skiing history, an astonishing 2.58 seconds,
 
Nef, a junior from Geneva, Switzerland, won the men’s giant slalom Individual NCAA Championship last month at Stowe, Vt., and held the lead after the first run of the slalom before a mishap on the second run led to a 27th place finish.  He was part of a 1-3-4 finish for Dartmouth in men’s GS that allowed the Big Green to take a Day 1 lead at the Championships before eventually finishing fourth.
 
Ogden, a sophomore from Landgrove, Vt., was the Individual NCAA Champion in the Women’s Classic race at Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt., successfully defending her NCAA Championship in the race.  She also finished fourth in the Women’s Freestyle race to earn two first-team All-America honors.  She won all four classic races she participated in throughout the season and hit the podium nine times in 10 races for the Big Green.
 
Weaver finished his ninth season as the Nordic coach for Vermont, helping the Catamounts to a second place finish at the NCAA Championships.  UVM racked up the third-most points in Nordic action last month at Trapp Family Lodge.  Five of his six Nordic skiers racked up seven All-America honors at the NCAA Championships and his teams captured 34 podium appearances throughout the 2019 season.