DENVER—The Colorado Buffaloes mounted a comeback of epic proportions as the Denver Invitational came to a conclusion, winning the closest regular season RMSIA Championship in league history.
Utah took a commanding lead through the first two meets, but both DU and the Buffs closed the gap significantly during the Colorado Invitational, the third meet of the season. Then in the Denver Invitational, Utah and Denver both extended its leads over the Buffs in the alpine portion of the meet before CU's Nordic team mounted the comeback.
Entering Saturday's final day of the regular season, with 30 of 32 races complete, Utah continued to hold a 61-point lead over the Buffs with DU 28.5 points ahead. CU beat Utah by 71 and DU by 35 Saturday claim the regular season championship, easily the closest in RMSIA history with just 10 points separating the three teams after all 32 races were calculated.
It's the Buffs first regular season championship in six years and seventh overall since the RMISA began being awarded a regular season title in 2006. Utah had won the previous five and seven of the previous eight regular season titles.
Overall, it's the 35th conference championship in the ski team's history, the most of any team in the RMISA.
The Buffs actually took the meet lead after the women's race, as the Kaleta sister's and Abrahamsson's 87-point performance pushed the Buffs past Denver by five points, 545-540. After that race, the regular season standings stood at Utah 2,312.5, Colorado 2,300.5 and Denver 2,300.
The men's race, with the shorthanded Buffs having just three skiers in the race, saw the Buffs hold off Denver despite the Pioneer's Andreas Kirkeng winning the race, and outscored the Pioneers by six points and more importantly, topped Utah by 22 points to turn a 12-point deficit into a 10-point lead in the final of 32 regular season races.
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