Given the purportedly illegal connection, you might ask CO to ticket you ALB-CLE-DEN-SLC, with the CLE-DEN on CO 1531 and DEN-SLC on DL 665. Gets you to SLC at 2:24. The 35-minute connection in CLE shouldn't be a problem. It's better than 29 minutes at IAH, where you could arrive at E-21 and leave out of C-19 or something.
You could also consider DL 4081 out of DEN, arriving in SLC at 12:11p. That's a 38-minute connection in DEN and a ride from A to C on the train, however.
Don't know if CO will go along with it, but what the heck?