Anchorage’s Rosie Brennan made two podium finishes in Ruka, Finland. Photo by Leann Bentley, U.S. Ski & Snowboard
On Thanksgiving Day, the Alaska Pacific University ski team posted a series of photos on Instagram, each showing a team member holding up a sign articulating what they’re grateful for.
“I’m thankful for mittens and fresh tracks!!”
“I’m thankful for the record-breaking snow in November!”
“This year I’m thankful to my sponsors!”
“I’m thankful 4 teammates!”
Three days later, an update was in order.
After the season-opening weekend of World Cup racing in Ruka, Finland, APU skiers had plenty more to be thankful for:
— Two medals for 34-year-old Rosie Brennan, who made two podium finishes — silver in the 10K classic on Saturday and bronze in the 20K skate race on Sunday. Brennan, a two-time Olympian, now owns nine individual World Cup podium finishes.
— A pair of top-22 results for 23-year-old Gus Schumacher, who led the American men in both distance races, placing 16th in the 20K and 22nd in the 10K.
— A career-best performance from 22-year-old Zanden McMullen, who recorded three of his seven career individual World Cup starts over the weekend. McMullen placed was 28th in the 20K, marking the second time he’s scored World Cup points with a top-30 result (he finished 29th in a November 2021 pursuit race).
— A pair of top-30 results for 21-year-old Novie McCabe, who was 21st in the skate race and 30th in the classic race.
— Two top qualifying times in the men’s and women’s sprint races on Friday. Brennan had the eighth fastest time among women, and 23-year-old J.C. Schoonmaker had the ninth-best time among men. Brennan was knocked out in the semifinals and Schoonmaker didn’t make it past the quarterfinals.
— World Cup points for 31-year-old Scott Patterson, who placed 20th in the 20K.
“Thanks Ruka for a great start to the @fiscrosscountry season,” Schumacher said on Instagram. “Nice to be back in the mix and on the board for the winter.”
Anchorage’s Zanden McMullen and Gus Schumacher. Photo by Leann Bentley, U.S. Ski & Snowboard
Brennan was the rock star of Ruka for the Americans, although three-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins of Minnesota made a bid for that honor with a bloody, bare-handed second-place finish in the women’s mass-start 20K on Sunday.
Brennan and Diggins were part of a tight lead pack in the final two kilometers when Diggins lost a pole, and with it her glove. A U.S. Ski Team coach was able to give her a replacement pole, although Diggins got hit in the face with the pole during the handoff. With her face bloodied and her right hand gloveless in single-digit temperatures, Diggins managed to recover quickly enough to nearly take the gold — Sweden’s Moa Ilar held on to beat Diggins by three-tenths of a second.
Brennan was 1.4 seconds back in third place. As she did in the Saturday classic race, she got stronger as the race got longer. She was 12 seconds off the lead at the halfway point, and again at the 16.5K mark. But from the 17K mark until the finish, Brennan was never more than two seconds out of the lead.
Sophia Laukli of Maine, the niece of Anchorage’s Heather Ireland and Gary Snyder, placed 14th and McCabe added her 21st-place effort to bolster a strong showing by the U.S. women.
“It was super fun to race with Sophia and Jessie for much of the race today,” Brennan told reporters after the race. “To be on the podium with Jessie is always good. It’s fun to share these big moments with your teammates. It makes it super rewarding and fun and adds to good vibes on the team and helps us carry good momentum going forward.”
The next stop for World Cup racers is Gallivare, Sweden. Ruka is located about 30 miles south of the Arctic Circle and Gallivare is about 60 miles above it.
So far the cold weather hasn’t hampered the red-hot Brennan, whose success in Ruka included collecting her first podium finish in a classic-technique race. She’ll enter the next set of races as the World Cup’s second-ranked woman, behind Sweden’s Frida Karlsson and ahead of Diggins.
The terrific start will no doubt shine a light on Brennan, but attention isn’t what drives her, she said.
“I just love the challenge of trying to improve, and working on all the small things that I can do to get better, and then testing myself and seeing if it works,” she said. “I’m definitely motivated by this weekend. I think it gives me confidence that my training this summer was really good and I made some good technical adjustments and things are headed in the right direction.
“So that’s definitely motivating, and of course I’m glad to see it show up in the results, and I hope to continue to do that.”