DENVER – University of Denver skiing had three student-athletes named to the 2024 College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-District At-Large Teams for their performance on the snow and in the classroom.
Alpine senior Nora Brand was named to the women’s team while Nordic junior Andreas Kirkeng and graduate student Florian Knopf were both selected to the men’s squad. CSC Academic All-District Teams recognize the top student-athletes in the nation based on their combined athletic and academic performances.
To be eligible for CSC Academic All-District honors, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore academically and athletically with at least a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution. Nominated student-athletes must have participated in at least 90 percent of their team’s games this season or started 66 percent of the games.
Each school was limited to six nominees for both the Men’s and Women’s At-Large Academic All-District Team, which includes athletes from the NCAA men’s sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
Brand earned a pair of All-American honors in her senior campaign, picking up first-team nods by placing third in slalom and second-team accolades for coming in seventh in giant slalom at the 2024 NCAA Championships in March. Also a member of the All-RMISA First Team, she grabbed two wins while earning five podiums, eight top-five results and placing in the top 10 in 11-of-14 races in the collegiate campaign. A ski team team captain, Brand was also named a DU Athletics Scholar-Athlete of the Year for having the highest grade-point average in the entire senior class.
Kirkeng won his third consecutive RMISA West Regional Championship in the Nordic classical discipline and was selected to the All-RMISA First Team and as RMISA Most Valuable Skier in both men’s freestyle and classic. A second-team All-American in the 7.5K freestyle after coming in 10th at the NCAA Championships, Kirkeng picked up six wins, earned eight podiums and placed in the top 10 in each of the first 12 races of the season. He won four consecutive events from Feb. 2-10, sweeping the regular-season races in Colorado from Feb. 2-10.
Knopf was consistently at the top of the leaderboard in his first season at the collegiate level in 2024, placing in the top five in nine of his 10 races and earning four podium finishes—all of which were runner-up placements. An All-RMISA First Team member, he picked up two All-American First-Team awards at the 2024 NCAA Championships, placing fifth in the 7.5K men’s Nordic freestyle and second in the 20K classical. Knopf, who still has another year of eligibility, began 2024 by placing in the top five in each of the first seven RMISA races and also represented the German National Team at the FIS World Cup races in Canmore, Alberta, in February.
Brand, Kirkeng and Knopf were also all selected as CSC Academic All-America finalists and will advance to the national ballot this month. This year’s men’s and women’s At-Large First, Second and Third Teams set to be announced on Wednesday, July 17.
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