How to qualify for NCAAs in skiing
by Stig Overaas, Outpost Staff
The qualification process for college skiing is more complex than more traditional college sports, such as football and basketball. NCAA skiing is divided into two primary divisions, east and west. Each division has five qualification meetings held by pre-selected schools, which usually take place from January through the end of February.
Unlike other team sports, athletes qualify to the NCAA Championships on an individual basis. For instance, about 18 male alpine skiers can qualify from the western division to represent their schools at the championships. Each meeting has two disciplines within the individual sports. Slalom and giant slalom are the disciplines for alpine, while skating and classic are the disciplines for nordic.
An athlete must have a minimum of two results in each of the two disciplines for being eligible for the championships. Most athletes meet this requirement, so they are screened through an additional process. After the final qualification races are over, a committee sits down and goes through all the results from the qualifying races.
For example, the committee chooses the 18 male alpine racers in the following way:
A list is made of the best racers in both of the disciplines where the two best results counts. The athlete with the best slalom results is the first choice, and is then eliminated from the list from giant slalom. Then the athlete with best giant slalom results is chosen and eliminated from the slalom list. This process goes on until the committee has a list containing 18 racers. The method for nordic is exactly the same, but differs in the way that the best three results are used as a basis for the screening process.
In other words, most racers won't know until the last race is finished whether they qualify or not, and it's always a nervous crew of racers waiting for the list.
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Posted Dec. 17, 1999
Copyright 1999 Nevada Outpost
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