Buffs Clinch 2018 RMISA Regular Season Crown

MINTURN, Colo. — The Colorado men's and women's Nordic teams put a cap on the Denver Invitational by winning both 5/10K classic races on Sunday at Maloit Park Trails, giving CU the meet victory as well as the 2018 RMISA regular season title.

For Colorado, it has now won six RMISA regular season titles in the last 13 years, the most of any school. CU won the 2018 regular season championships with 603 points, a 156½-point margin of victory over second place Denver.

"Considering the fact that throughout the season we were never in full number and strength due to Olympic preparation and World Cups, all kind of outside competition, it is an accomplishment," head coach Richard Rokos said of the Buffs winning the regular season title. "It is good to see the depth in the team and especially on the women's Nordic side, they have a really, really strong team. That is all very encouraging for upcoming regionals and nationals."

Thanks to the strong Nordic performances, CU was able to win the DU Invite with 657 points, a 66½-point cushion over Denver who finished second.

Colorado won all four Nordic races at the DU Invite and was led by freshman Alvar Alev, who won the two on the men's side.

The women's team again dominated the top of the leaderboard with three Buffs finishing in the top six and a fourth in ninth place. After tying for the freestyle race win on Saturday, the CU women won Sunday's classic race by four points.

"It was a really good weekend for us," head Nordic coach Bruce Cranmer said. "It is not one that we were pointing at as a big deal so to have good results without trying to really peak for this race or anything, we are just trying to keep our eye open for the last two races of the year. I was really happy with the way things went."

WOMEN'S 5K CLASSIC RACE: Capping off a dominating regular season for the women's Nordic team where it won 6-of-8 races during the regular season, including Sunday's classic that was the second of the two races.

The race victory came with 92 points on the backing of Anne Siri Lervik finishing in third, Hedda Baangman in fourth and Christina Rolandsen in sixth. That allowed the Buffs to edge Utah by four points, as the Utes had the race winner in Guro Jordhiem as well as the 12th and 13th place finishers.

For Lervik, it was her second podium finish of the season and she has now finished fifth or better in six consecutive races.

There also was a fourth Buff in the top 10 Sunday. Senior Ane Johnsen placed ninth and she has now put together four consecutive races finishing in the top 10.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC RACE: Alev's win in the 10K classic made him the first CU men's Nordic skier to sweep both races in a meet since Mads Stroem, now an assistant coach for DU, did so in three different meets in 2016.

Junior Petter Reistad finished in third and Andrew Potyk was 19th. The Buffs scored 89 points in the men's race thanks to taking two of the three spots on the podium and won the race with 88 points, a 12-poinnt margin of victory over Montana State.

Reistad was on the podium for both races over the weekend, giving him five podium finishes this season and 13 for his career.

NOTEWORTHY: Colorado's 156½-point margin of victory in the RMISA regular season title is the second largest margin since 2006. CU in 2013 had a 271½-point margin, again over DU, in its 2013 season when it won all four meets, the RMISA/NCAA West Regional and NCAA Championship.

UP NEXT: CU will host the 2018 RMISA Championships/NCAA West Regional, Feb. 23-25 in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The Buffs are the defending West Region champions and have won 28 total regional titles since the sport went coed back in 1983.

QUOTEABLE
Head Coach Richard Rokos

More On Winning The DU Invite And RMISA Regular Season Title
"It was outstanding. Considering the fact that we had at least two major skiers on Nordic side not even present (Petra Hyncicova who is at the Olympics and Sondre Bollum who was sick) and David (Ketterer) recovering from his European experience, I think this is really good season, no question."

On How The Team Will Prepare For The RMISA Championships
"I just made the plan for this coming week and it looks like with (FIS) races on Saturday and Sunday in Winter Park, we will be almost every day on the snow. On alpine, a little heavy schedule, but we'll polish a couple of things, put more emphasis on training GS this week and just make sure that we are going into the following week all healthy. I think the following week will be easier and then we'll roll into regional championship right away."

Head Nordic Coach Bruce Cranmer

On Alvar Alev Winning Both Races Over The Weekend
"That is awesome for him. I think his body is feeling good, training wise and then when you have good results then you sort of get the confidence thing going too. Then you sort of have the expectation that oh 'I should be winning races,' and so that is a big lift for him and now I think he has really been able to step it up and obviously is skiing great."

On Andrew Potyk and Tyler Terranova Stepping Up With Sondre Bollum Out
"It was awesome to see those guys in there and having a chance to score for us and help out, that is what team skiing is all about. It is awesome that we got enough people, certainly the men's team is not quite as deep as the women's right now, but seeing those guys come up in there is awesome."

On The Women's Team
"A great job by the women's team, they have just been solid all year. They're continuing to ski right in there and hopefully we got another notch to come up in time for championships."

On The Team Overall
"Certainly there are a few people not feeling great for whatever reason so there is a little disappointment just in how their bodies feel, not necessarily in the results. We'll have two weeks before the next meet in Steamboat and hopefully we'll get everyone dialed in and everyone's bodies feeling good by two weeks from now."

2018 Denver Invitational
Feb. 11, 2018 | Maloit Park Trails

MEET TEAM STANDINGS (FINAL):
1. Colorado 657; 2. Denver 590.5; 3. Montana State 583.5; 4. Utah 556.5; 5. New Mexico 482; 6. Alaska Anchorage 322; 7. Westminster College 230.5; 8. Alaska Fairbanks 176; 9. Wyoming 98; 10. Colorado Mountain College 53.

WOMEN'S 5K CLASSIC TEAM SCORES:
1. Colorado 92; 2. Denver 88; 3. Utah 79; 4. Montana State 66; 5. Alaska Fairbanks 44; 6. Alaska Anchorage 43; 7. New Mexico 42; 8. Wyoming 24.

WOMEN'S 5K CLASSIC (33 finishers):
1. Guro Jordheim, Utah, 18:46.3; 2. Linn Eriksen, DU, 19:02.6; 3. Anne Siri Lervik, CU, 19:04.2; 4. Hedda Baangman, CU, 19:04.7; 5. Jasmi Joensuu, DU, 19:06.1; 6. Christina Rolandsen, CU, 19:19.7; 7. Emma Tarbath, MSU, 19:22.8; 8. Anna Fake, MSU, 19:33.8; 9. Ane Johnsen, CU, 19:37.8; 10. Taeler McCrerey, DU, 19:48.0. Other CU Finishers: 27. Quinn Lehmkuhl 22:03.8.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC TEAM SCORES:
1. Colorado 88; 2. Montana State 76; 3. Utah 74; 4. Denver 66; 5. New Mexico 62; 6. Alaska Fairbanks 47; 7. Alaska Anchorage 41; 8. Wyoming 24.

MEN'S 10K CLASSIC (36 finishers):
1. Alvar Alev, CU, 33:19.8; 2. Martin Bergstroem, Utah, 33:26.7; 3. Petter Reistad, CU, 33:38.5; 4. Dag Frode Trolleboe, DU, 34:05.4; 5. Erik Axelsson, MSU, 34:07.6; 6. Karsten Hokanson, MSU, 34:08.2; 7. Erlend Nydal, UNM, 34:11.4; 8. Eivind Kvaale, DU, 34:26.5; 9. Ricardo Izquierdo-Bernier, UNM, 24:28.1; 10. Toomas Kollo, UAA, 34:57.3. Other CU Finishers: 19. Andrew Potyk 35:49.9; 26. Tyler Terranova 37:11.5.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Alvar Alev

Hedda Baangman

Sondre Bollum

Petra Hyncicova

Ane Johnsen

Quinn Lehmkuhl

Anne Siri Lervik

Andrew Potyk

Petter Reistad

Christina Rolandsen

Mads Stroem

Tyler Terranova