Sara Rask wins the national championship for women’s slalom

Pioneers are in second position following day one of the NCAA Championships.

Lyme Centre, New Hampshire. Sara Rask, a senior at the University of Denver, won her first individual national title and season sweep in women’s alpine slalom at the 2025 NCAA Championships at Dartmouth Skiway.

Rask won all seven slalom events this year and has been on the podium in ten out of thirteen races. She will attempt the championship double on Friday, when the alpine phase of this year’s championships closes with giant slalom at Dartmouth Skiway.

“It felt a little bit surreal,” Rask remarked after her national title triumph. “I was just surrounded by friends and celebrating with them. It was simply great. I had been fantasising about this since I came at DU, and it was fantastic to finally make it happen.”

The Stockholm, Sweden native is the 97th DU skier to win an individual national title, and the first since Katie Hensien did so in slalom in 2022 at Park City, Utah.

The Pioneers have won three individual skiing national championships in slalom, including Amelia Smart’s 2021 victory in Jackson, New Hampshire.

Overall, Rask is the 129th individual national winner in DU sports history, and the first since Maira Carreau in women’s triathlon 2023.

Rask, wearing bib No. 1, was the first competitor down the hill in the morning, but she was only five hundredths of a second behind Colby College’s Carissa Cassidy in the afternoon session (48.66). The Pioneer moved into first place with the 12th-fastest second run of 48.66 and then had to wait for Cassidy, who completed a minute later but fell short of Rask’s two-run total of 1:33.25.

“Run 2 was full-send,” Rask remarked. “Which was kind of scary but a lot fun.”

DU’s women’s alpine team captain finished six hundredths of a second ahead of second-place Justine Clement of Vermont (1:33.31) and seven hundredths clear of third-place Colorado’s Magdalena Luczak (1:33.32). Clement and Luczak both improved after finishing seventh and tenth, respectively, in run one.
Mia Hunt, a junior, tied for seventh place in 1:33.86, earning All-American honours alongside her teammate Rask. Hunt was 13th after the first run, but she produced the fourth-fastest time in run 2 to briefly hold the lead and finish in the top ten for the first time in her NCAA championship career.

Denver’s Rask and Hunt combined for 64 points, and the Pioneers are in second place overall with 107 after Day 1. DU lags leader Colorado by only 41 points and is tied for third with Utah and Vermont (87 points) before the Nordic races begin on Thursday.
DU’s men’s team scored 43 points in the slalom, which had more challenging weather conditions in the morning and a steeper slope to the finish line. All western Rockey Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association schools struggled in the first men’s run, with just three athletes from the conference in the top ten at the halfway point and only four finishing in the top ten.
Loic Chable, a Denver graduate student, and Pietro Motterlini, a freshman, ascended after their initial runs. Chable produced the fourth-fastest run 2 time (45.15) to finish 11th after starting 24th, and Motterlini utilised the ninth-fastest second descent to move from 28th to 19th.

In his second run, Junior Thomas Hoffman was on track for a top-10 finish. However, he stumbled in the penultimate pitch and finished 20th.

Jayden Buckrell of New Hampshire won the men’s slalom national title after holding on to his lead after the first run, followed by Filip Wahlqvist of Colorado in second and Bode Flanigan of Boston College in third.
Due to inclement weather, organisers rescheduled the alpine disciplines, shifting slalom to the opening of the championships on Wednesday and giant slalom to Friday. Rain poured during the first runs but eased up in run 2, but fog became more visible at the top of the course as each skier began their second descent.
The NCAA Championships’ Nordic event begins on Thursday with a 7.5-kilometer traditional interval start at Oak Hill Outdoor Centre in Hanover. This year’s national championships will end with alpine slalom on Friday and the Nordic 20K freestyle mass start on Saturday morning.

DENVER WOMEN SLALOM INDIVIDUAL RESULTS:
1. Sara Rask ran 1:33.25 (44.59/48.66).
T7: Mia Hunt, 1:33.86 (45.65/48.24).
Denver Men’s Slalom Individual Results
11. Loic Chable ran 1:28.75 (43.60/45:15).
19. Pietro Motterlini: 1:29.11 (43.78/45.38).
20. Thomas Hoffman (1:29.21; 42.78/46.23)

TEAM STANDINGS (through two of eight events): 1. Colorado 148; 2. Denver 107; T3. Utah 87; T3. Vermont 87; 5. Dartmouth 86.5; 6. Alaska Anchorage 83; 7. New Hampshire 82; 8. Colby 70; 9. Middlebury 52; 10. Montana State 51; 11. Boston College 34; 12. Westminster 29; 13. Nevada 27.5; 14. St. Michael’s 24; 15. Plymouth State 14; 16. St. Lawrence 10; 17. Williams 6; DNR: Alaska Fairbanks, Bowdoin, Harvard, Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan, St. Scholastica.

WOMEN’S SLALOM TOP TEN (31 Finishers): 1. Sara Rask, DU, 1:33.25; 2. Justine Clement, UVM, 1:33.31; 3. Magdalena Luczak, CU, 1:33.32; 4. Justine Lamontagne, MSU, 1:33.37; 5. Zoe Zimmermann, DAR, 1:33.45; 6. Ella Bromee, UAA, 1:33.85; 7. Mia Hunt, 1:33.86; 8. Louison Accambray, CU, 1:33.86; 9. Carissa Cassidy, CBC, 1:33.

MEN’S SLALOM TOP TEN (30 Finishers): 1. Jayden Buckrell, UNH, 1:27.17; 2. Filip Wahlqvist, CU, 1:27.20; 3. Bode Flanigan, BC, 1:28.12; 4. Oscar Zimmer, DAR, 1:28.36; 5. Harrison Digangi, CBC, 1:28.42; 6. Bradshaw Underhill, MID, 1:28.43; 7. Johann Herland, UU, 1:28.51; 8. Simen Strand, UU, 1:28.62; 9. Jan Ronner, UAA, 1:28.66; 10. Etienne Mazellier, CU, 1:28.74.

Fans may donate to the Pioneers Athletic Fund by clicking here. Your contribution will change the lives of our student-athletes by providing them with the first-rate resources they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Thank you for establishing Pioneers for Life!