Colorado Comes Back To Win UAF Invitational

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Colorado entered the day with 14.5 point deficit to Utah and after the two teams tied in the women's race, the Buffs outscored the Utes by 16 points in the men's race to win by just 1.5 points.

It's believed to be the closest meet standings since Colorado and Dartmouth tied for the National Championship in 1976. The Buffs final scored was 340.5 points and Utah's 339. Denver finished third with 306 and host Alaska Fairbanks fourth with 263. Alaska Anchorage edged out Montana State for fifth, 226.5-209.

Only in the world of weighted scores and college ski racing does (1+5+8) = (3+4+6) but in both cases they equal 92 points. That's what Utah, led by race winner Sydney Palmer-Leger, who won her fifth race of the season in seven tries, and Colorado placed in the race. UAF's Kendall Kramer took second and CU's Hanna Abrahamsson rounded out the podium in third place.

CU's Anna-Maria Dietze was fourth, Utah's Abigail Jarzin fifth, CU's Karolina Kaleta sixth and Utah's Karianne Dengerud eighth for the scoring positions of the two teams.

DU had another dominant performance on the men's side, going 1-2 in both races. Bernhard Flascheberger came back all the way from 16th place to not only have the fastest 10K freestyle time but win the pursuit race, as well, by about eight seconds. Andreas Kirkeng, atop the podium on Tuesday, finished second in the pursuit race. His brother Ole Marius finished fifth as the Pioneers picked up an impressive 106 points.

For the team title, however, it was Colorado's Will Koch that finished third and put the Buffs in contention to catch the Utes. Magnus Boee finished seventh and Fredrik Nilsen 12th for Colorado to pick up 78 points. Utah's Sam Hendry finished eighth, Brian Bushey ninth and Bjorn Riksassen 14th earn 62 points for the Utes.

After the women's race, Utah held a 277-262.5 advantage and when it was tallied in the end, Colorado finished with 340.5 and Utah 339.

Teams have two days off before picking action back up this weekend in the Besh Cup, which the RMISA will use to calculate team scoring for the Nordic half of the RMISA Invitational.