Alaskans dominated the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships Tuesday in Utah, producing celebrations, dramatic finishes and disappointment.
For Rosie Brennan, the runaway champion of the women’s 20-kilometer mass start freestyle race, the event served as a good effort as she builds towards next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics.
For Scott Patterson, his narrow victory in the men’s 30K boosted his Olympic chances as he works back from a broken wrist.
Women’s runner-up Rosie Frankowski was thrilled with her result while men’s runner-up David Norris left disappointed that his bid to reel in a faltering Patterson in the final kilometers came up short.
Men’s third-place winner Hunter Wonders was pleased to notch his first distance podium at U.S. Nationals. His female counterpart on the results sheet, women’s bronze winner Caitlin Patterson, saw her streak of five straight victories at nationals during an Olympic year end — but not her shot at making a second-straight Olympics.
With the exception of Caitlin Patterson (South High), all of the aforementioned athletes represent the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center, the premier ski racing club in the country.
“It goes to show how strong the program is,” Wonders said.
Strong barely begins to describe Brennan, who notched seven top-5 performances on the World Cup this season in Europe before opting to skip the Tour de Ski and return home to Utah.
“I wanted a period of time to focus on training,” said Brennan, who worked out for two weeks at an altitude similar to the Olympic venue in China.
Rosie Brennan / Photo by Matias Saari
Brennan entered nationals for the first time since 2015 and proved to be at a different level than the competition by building a 49-second lead in the first third of the race and coasting to a win by 1 minute, 20 seconds.
Her goal was to simulate a World Cup or Olympics race by starting hard, settling in to a consistent pace and continue working hard all the way to the finish — despite gusting winds at the 2002 Olympic venue of Soldier Hollow that created an additional mental and physical challenge.
When her race essentially turned into a time trial, APU teammate Luke Jager provided Brennan with levity and visualization by giving make-believe splits to World Cup racers, such as “10 seconds to Johaug,” referring to Brennan’s Norwegian rival Therese Johaug.
Meanwhile, Frankowski and Caitlin Patterson worked together to successfully drop the rest of the field, then spent the second half of the race trying to ditch each other. Frankowski, the stronger climber, repeatedly gained small gaps on the course’s multiple hills only to have Patterson, the superior descender, overtake her on the downhills.
(Left to Right) Rosie Frankowski, Rosie Brennan and Caitlin Patterson rock the podium. Photo by Matias Saari
Frankowski finally gained a sustainable gap on the “Hollow” climb at the start of the sixth and final lap.
“I dug myself into a blackout,” she told coach Erik Flora after the race.
Frankowski maintained a lead of several seconds up the steepest climb, called Hermod’s Hill, with Patterson desperately chasing her down the backside and on the flat finishing stretch.
Frankowski held her off by 1.9 seconds before collapsing.
“I needed about three more seconds,” said Patterson, who won Sunday’s freestyle sprint title as well as all four U.S. Nationals races at Kincaid Park in Anchorage four years ago.
Both are 2018 Olympians who are battling for the limited women’s 2022 Olympic spots still up for grabs, a topic that was on Frankowski’s mind during the race.
“(The U.S. coaches) should bring us both,” Frankowski said she thought while racing the final lap.
The men’s race also had drama. Halfway through the eight-lap race, with Scott Patterson primarily keeping the pace high, the contenders had been whittled to six: APU’s Patterson, Norris, Wonders and Zanden McMullen, plus Vermont-based Adam Martin and Ian Torchia.
(Left to Right) David Norris, Scott Patterson and Hunter Wonders celebrate on the podium. Photo by Matias Saari
Patterson, who like Norris and Wonders had a disappointing start to the World Cup season, finally gapped the field on the sixth lap and quickly built a lead of more than 30 seconds before it began to evaporate.
“I was skiing scared for sure,” said Patterson, who has been hampered by a broken wrist that required surgery in October. “David was skiing well and I was starting to fall apart.”
Patterson said he had trouble sleeping on Monday night because so much was at stake in national championship races Tuesday and Thursday (a 15K classic). The U.S. men will likely get six spots for the Olympics and possibly all but one have already been snapped up.
“The 30 and 50K at the (2022) Olympics have been my goal for a long time,” said Patterson, who placed 11th in the 50K at the 2018 Olympics.
Norris has plenty of accolades to his name — he holds the Mount Marathon Race record, has won the famous American Birkebeiner 50K and placed in the Top 20 at last year’s World Championships — but has never been named to the U.S. Ski Team or qualified for the Olympics.
Tuesday’s race provided another close call. On the seventh lap, he dropped Wonders and Torchia and charged after Patterson, coming within a tantalizing 11.9 seconds by the finish.
“I had a pretty good second wind. I thought I had a chance,” said Norris, who vomited early in the race and labored throughout.
“I felt awful from the gun. My legs, they were just hurting.”
Tyler Kornfield
Tyler Kornfield, the defending 30K national champion in an Olympic year, dropped out during the third lap. He recently injured his thumb and will have surgery next week but said that wasn’t his problem on Tuesday.
“I just didn’t have the legs,” said Kornfield, whose 2018 victory clinched an Olympic berth.
Plenty of other Alaskans landed near the top of the leaderboard on Tuesday. In the men’s race, McMullen placed sixth, Garrett Butts of APU was eighth, Thomas O’Harra took 10th and Michael Earnhart was the top Under-20 racer in 12th.
For the women, Becca Rorabaugh placed 12th and Anna Darnell was 15th.
In the junior races, which will help determine the rosters for the upcoming World Junior Championships in Norway, Kendall Kramer (University of Alaska Fairbanks) placed seventh in the 7.5K race and Anchorage native Garvie Tobin (Dartmouth College) was eighth.
In the 10K, Peter Hinds (UAA) and former Alaska Skimeister Alexander Maurer (Colorado University) led the way in 11th and 13th, respectively.
Complete results for all races at U.S. Nationals can be viewed here.
David Norris and Scott Patterson push the pace and lead the pack on a hill climb. Photo by Matias Saari