University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
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Trond Nystad 1994 - Cross Country, Skiing, Track and Field
The 1994 winner of the Wasson Athletic Prize and 2004 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, Trond Nystad was an All-American nordic skier who also a standout runner in cross country and track. He was the 1994 New England Division I Collegiate Male Athlete of The Year, the only male from UVM ever to win the award (The 1994 women's winner was UConn's Rebecca Lobo).
A native of Fauske, Norway, he was a GTE/CoSida Academic All-American and the North Atlantic Conference (now America East) Scholar-Athlete for cross country in 1991 and 1993. In his four seasons on the ski team, he and his twin brother, Knut, helped the Catamounts to two NCAA titles (1992, 1994) and two runner-up finishes (1991, 1993). Three times Nystad was an All-American, posting a top-five finish in one or both of the Nordic events. In 1992 he became the first Catamount ever to win the NCAA individual classical title. In his last race with UVM in 1994, he finished second in the NCAA 10K classical race.
He also was an outstanding cross country runner at Vermont with his brother leading the Catamounts to the program's best-ever finishes in the conference championships. He finished second in the NAC Championship meet in 1993 and placed sixth in the New England's.
Nystad graduated magna cum laude in Business Administration from UVM in 1994 where he also was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Golden Key Society. He also earned a master's degree in management information services from Denver in 1998.
Since leaving UVM, Nystad has continued his excellence as an athlete and as a coach. From 1994-2001, he won several marathon ski races for the Factory Team, a team consisting of the top U.S. skiers. He began his coaching career as the head Nordic and cross-country running coach at Northern Michigan from 1994 to 1996 producing several All-Americans.
He joined his brother Knut as an assistant on the Denver staff from 1996 to 2004 and has helped lead the Pioneers to four NCAA Ski Championships. From 2002 to 2005, he was the head Nordic coach for the U.S. National ski program.
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