Hannover, N.H. - The Colby Alpine and Nordic Ski Teams are set to kick off the 2025 NCAA Championships on Wednesday. This year's championships will be hosted by Dartmouth College, with the Dartmouth Skiway hosting the alpine events and Oak Hill hosting the Nordic races. Racing begins with the alpine team in action with the Slalom, followed by the Nordic team taking on a 7.5k classic race. The alpine team will then race the GS on Friday, and the Nordic team will then race a 20k mass start.
The alpine team qualified five skiers for the event, the highest number since the 2015 season. Lydia Riddell, Hannah Soria, and Harrison Digangi will be making their second start at an NCAA Championship. The last time Riddell qualified, she earned All-American honors in the GS. Carissa Cassidy will be making her debut after earning the Slalom title during the regular season. Nolan Sweeney qualified for the event but instead chose to participate at the World Junior Championships in Tarvisio, Italy.
The alpine team will be taking against a talented and international heavy squad at the event, with Digangi one of 13 American men having qualified among the 34 racers and the Colby women's team being 3 of the 13 American women qualifiers. With three women qualified by the Mules, this marks the first time the team has qualified a full squad (3 skiers) in any gender since 2015.
A young Colby Nordic team qualified three skiers, two of whom are making their NCAA Championships debuts. Headlining the squad is Senior Jack Young, who finished in second place at the Middlebury Carnival sprint. Sophomores Maddie Hooker and Andrew Defor will be looking to make waves after superb seasons.
This marks the fifth consecutive year the Nordic team has qualified at least three skiers for the NCAA Championships. They will be looking to land an All-American for the first time since 2019 and surely have the speed to do so.
The event program can be found at https://www.ncaa.com/sports/skiing. All events will be streamed live, with action kicking off tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.
