Dartmouth Ski Team On Cusp Of Rare NCAA Championship

Barring a meltdown (pun intended) the Dartmouth Ski Team should capture the national title today at Attitash today when the slalom caps the NCAA Championships. The Manchester Union Leader quotes Denver coach Wolf Wallendorf:

"I think they can be pretty happy for (today) and ski the slalom. We'll see, if someone crashes, you never know. At least we're still in contention for first, but it will be rough."

The NCAA story (credited to host UNH) can be found here and the Dartmouth generated story is here.

While the ski team is looking to clinch the title, the Dartmouth women's ice hockey team is in the NCAA quarterfinals today against Boston College and is primed for another appearance in the Frozen Four and still another bid at a national title.

Coming after last spring's appearance in the national championship game by the Dartmouth women's lacrosse team, this latest flurry of title aspirations sent me off to do a little research and here's what I found:

Dartmouth has won three previous NCAA championships in skiing (1958 and 1976) and in golf (1921). That got me wondering about official NCAA championships by other Ivy schools. Here's that breakdown, courtesy of the NCAA:

Yale: 27
Men's championships: 25
golf 21
swimming & diving 4
Women's championships: 2
fencing: 2

Princeton : 22
Men's championships: 19
fencing: 1
golf: 12
lacrosse: 6
Women's championships: 3
lacrosse: 3

Columbia-Barnard: 13
Men's championships: 11
fencing: 11
Coed championships:
fencing: 2

Harvard: 10
Men's championships: 7
golf: 6
ice hockey: 1
Women's championships: 2
lacrosse: 1
rowing: 1
Coed championships: 1
fencing: 1

Cornell: 5
Men's championships: 5
lacrosse: 3
ice hockey: 2

Brown: 4
Women's championships: 4
rowing: 4

Pennsylvania: 4
Men's championships: 3
fencing: 3
Women's championships: 1
fencing 1:

I also got a little curious about how many schools sponsor the sports in which Dartmouth has been challenging of late for Division I national championships. Here are the number of schools sponsoring varsity teams in Division I by sport according to the NCAA (ranked from most to least):

MEN
Basketball 326
Cross Country 297
Golf 287
Baseball 284
Track, Outdoor 262
Tennis 259
Track, Indoor 241
Football 234
(I-FBS 118)
(I-FCS 116)
Soccer 196
Swimming 139
Wrestling 89
Ice Hockey 58
Lacrosse 57
Rowing 30
Volleyball 22
Water Polo 21
Fencing 20
Gymnastics 17
Skiing 13
Rifle 5
Bowling 1

WOMEN
Basketball 325
Cross Country 322
Volleyball 315
Tennis 306
Track, Outdoor 302
Soccer 301
Track, Indoor 290
Softball 269
Golf 231
Swimming 190
Rowing 86
Lacrosse 81
Field Hockey 78
Gymnastics 65
Ice Hockey 33
Water Polo 31
Bowling 28
Fencing 26
Skiing 14
Rifle 11

MIXED
Rifle 17
Fencing 1

Former Dartmouth fullback Charles Ganske and current Dartmouth receivers coach Jarrail Jackson get a mention in this story about training camp opening for the Manchester Wolves of af2.

In more football news (really basketball news if the truth be told) Jay Fiedler may be bringing a CBA franchise to Kentucky. Read about it here.