RMISA Releases 2020 Ski Schedule

DENVER—The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association released the 2020 schedule for the western region schools Tuesday and the University of Colorado will host the Eighth Annual Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational at Eldora (alpine) and Steamboat Springs (Nordic) January 15-19.

With New Mexico dropping skiing, there are only three scheduled regular season team meets on the books for 2020 instead of the regular total of four.  The same number of races will be held in terms of NCAA Qualifying with an extra Nordic qualifier in Aspen and then every meet including the RMISA Championships hosting an extra alpine qualifier.

The teams will open up with the alpine portion of the Denver Invitational on January 10-12 in Aspen with an extra giant slalom race kicking the season off on Friday, Jan. 10 and then GS and slalom races as part of the DU meet on Jan. 11-12.  The DU meet will conclude two weeks later with Nordic races at Maloit Park in Minturn, Colo., near Vail. A 5K women's and 10K men's classic race will take place on Jan. 25 followed by a 10K pursuit race on Jan. 26.

Between the alpine and Nordic portion of the DU meet will be the Buffs own Spencer James Nelson Memorial Invitational.  Four alpine races at Eldora will be featured Jan. 15-17. A GS race on Wednesday, Jan. 15 will kick off the meet followed by a slalom race on Thursday, Jan. 16.  Those two races will count as part of the Buffs home meet. On Jan. 17, an extra qualifier slalom race will take place during the day and for the second straight season, the Buffs will host a night dual slalom exhibition, a racing format coach Richard Rokos has taken the lead on proposing to become an official college racing format.

The Nordic events will then take place in Steamboat Springs at Howelsen Hill on January 18-19 in conjunction with a Junior National Qualifier.  Action begins on Jan. 18 with 5k women's and 10k men's freestyle races and then conclude on Jan. 19 with 10k women's and 15k men's classic races.

The Nordic teams will race in Aspen on Feb. 8-9 with one of the races taking place during the Owl Creek Chase, one of the top Cross Country Ski races in Colorado annually.  This will be the first time RMISA schools will participate in the Owl Creek Chase as part of NCAA Qualifying since the 2011 season when it was part of the Denver Invitational.  Teams will compete in a 5K women's and 10K men's freestyle race on Saturday, Feb. 8 with the Owl Creek Chase being a 21K classic race on Sunday, Feb. 9.

The following week, the Utah Invitational begins the first of two weekends of competition.  The Nordic teams will head from Aspen to Midway, Utah, for events at Soldier Hollow on Feb. 14-15, first a 5K women's and 10K men's freestyle race followed by 10K classic races the following day. .  Alpine events in the Utah Invitational will take place at Park City the following weekend February 22-24 with an extra slalom qualifier on the final day.

The teams will then head to Bozeman, Mont., for the two postseason events.   The RMISA Championships will be held there February 28-29, preceded with the final alpine qualifier on Thursday, Feb. 27.   Giant Slalom and Freestyle (5K women's and 10K men's) will take place on Friday, Feb. 28 followed by Slalom and Classic (15K women's, 20K men's) races on leap day, Saturday, Feb. 29.

Two weeks later, a majority of the RMISA will return to Boezman for the NCAA Championships.  Giant slalom races will kick off the championship on March 11 with 5k women's and 10k men's freestyle races taking center stage on March 12.  Slalom races will conclude the alpine portion of the championship on March 13 and the 15k women's and 20k men's classic races will conclude the championships.  Montana State is hosting an exhibition dual slalom for the alpine teams on March 13 as another step in the event possibly being incorporated into the championship in future years.

Colorado University Athletics

Related Videos