Colorado Wins UAA Invitational

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 • by Curtis Snyder, RMISA

GIRDWOOD, Alaska—While it wasn't as dramatic as its comeback for the 2024 NCAA Championship, the Colorado Buffaloes nonetheless did complete an impressive comeback to claim the final regular season meet of 2025, the UAA Invitational, with GS and slalom races here at Ayleska Resort this week.

The Nordic portion of this meet took place at the US National Championships the first week of January, and at that point, Denver and Utah were battling for first place, with DU holding a seven-point advantage (341-334) with Colorado in third some 40 points back with 294.

The women's GS was up first on Wednesday and CU welcomed back national skier of the year Magdalena Luczak for her first race of the season, and she didn't disappoint by winning the race by three-quarters of a second. CU was bolstered by a fourth place from Louison Accambray, but Utah won the race with 96 points behind a 2-3 finish from Kaja Norbye and Claire Timmermann and seventh from Kaila Lafreniere. Westminster's Elise Hitter rounded out the top five in the race.

Utah scored 96 points and Colorado 91, and both had caught Denver, and through five races it was Utah 430, Colorado 385 and Denver 381 in the three-team race.

In the men's GS race, the Buffs were able to put distance between them selves and Denver, but another solid performance from Utah with three in the top nine kept the Utes in the lead. CU's Jacob Dilling won the men's GS race, his first win in two years and on the one-year anniversary of his father's passing. Montana State's Jamie Casselman was second and Denver's Pietro Motterlini rounded out the podium. Utah's Simen Starand was tied with Motterlini in third place and joined in the top 10 by three other Utes with Johs Herland taking seventh and Sindre Myklebust ninth for team scoring and the Utes place Raphael Lessard in 10th for good measure. Colorado countered with a 5-6 finish from Filip Wahlqvist and Justin Bigatel.

Colorado won the race with 96 points and Utah was second with 79.5 and Denver was fourth with 69.5. Utah still held a 28.5 point advantage over Colorado, who had moved up 30.5 points on Denver.

Slalom is often called the great equalizer, and the women's slalom race certainly lived up to that expectation, as Denver's Sara Rask closed out a perfect regular season, winning her fifth straight slalom race, and was joined in the top five by teammate Mia Hunt in fifth. UAA's Ella Bromee didn't disappoint on her home course in second and Utah's Norbye took third and Colorado's Luczak fourth.

Denver won the race with 86 points with UAA edging the Buffaloes 79-77 in third place. Utah struggled a bit with 53 points, scoring only two skiers. Team standings through seven of eight races couldn't be closer with Utah now having 562.5 points with Denver moving past Colorado by just a single point, 559-558.

It all came down to the men's slalom race, and like they did in men's GS, the Buffaloes comminated and secured the meet victory, moving from third to first in the standings. Like Rask, CU's Wahlqvist completed a perfect slalom season, winning every regular season race, and he was pushed most in this race by teammate Bigatel, who had the fastest second run and moved all the way from 12th to 2nd. CU placed three in the top five with Louis Fausa taking fifth place. Utah's Herland and Nevada's Iver Naess also placed in the top five in third and fourth, respectively.

The Buffs 1-2-5 performance scored them 106 points with Utah 26 points back at 80 and Denver scoring 56.5 points. The final meet standings saw the Buffs with with 664 points, 21.5 up on Utah (642.5) and 71 up on Denver's total of 593.

Teams remain in Alaska to put the wraps on the RMISA Championships Saturday.