Eagle River’s Michael Earnhart and Walker Hall duel during the men’s SuperTour semifinal of the men’s sprint at Kincaid Park. Photo by Scott Broadwell
Michael Earnhart of Eagle River skied fast all afternoon en route to victory in a race that marked the end of a crazy week of competition at Kincaid Park.
Tuesday’s Super Tour freestyle sprint was the finale of a six-day series. Competition began with three national championship races and ended with the Super Tour race.
More than 400 skiers from across the country competed, and they saw the gamut.
Racing started Thursday in a deep freeze and ended Tuesday in short-sleeve conditions. Temperatures were in single digits for the first race but soared into the 40s for the last one.
Along the way, the days got a little bit longer — Anchorage gained a total of 16 minutes of daylight.
The final day of racing happened despite warm temperatures that turned the city into an ice rink Monday and Tuesday.
At Kincaid, trails were slick and slushy.
Earnhart holds off the pack to win the men’s SuperTour sprint final. Photo by Scott Broadwell
Earnhart and Mariel Pulles – a UAF grad and former college star for the Nanooks – earned the wins.
Earnhart won the 1.4-kilometer men’s final by .53 of a second over Walker Hall of the University of Utah. Luke Jager of Anchorage placed fifth.
Earnhart’s mom and dad were part of a hometown crowd cheering at the finish line. Both parents spent the week at Kincaid as part of a volunteer army that numbered about 200.
“That’s pretty awesome to cross the finish line and my parents are right there,” Earnhart said in a race wrap-up from the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage. “It’s fun to ski here at home. … But I’m trying to get back on the World Cup.”
Earnhart, 22, started the season on the World Cup circuit as a member of the U.S. Ski Team. Buoyed by his results at Kincaid, he’s likely to return to Europe either for more World Cup racing or the Under-23 World Championships — or both.
He finished in the top 10 of all three U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships races, a showing highlighted by his third-place effort in Saturday’s classic sprint.
The men’s sprint SuperTour podium (from left to right) John Steel Hagenbuch, Anchorage’s Luke Jager, Hall, Earnhart, Carl Rune and Reid Goble. Photo by Scott Broadwell
On Tuesday Earnhart posted the fastest quarterfinal and semifinal times of the day. He clocked 2:43.73 in his quarterfinal – no other quarterfinal winner broke 2:48.0 – and 2:48.32 in his semifinal. His semifinal time was nearly nine seconds faster than the top time in the other semifinal.
He won the final in 2:51.95.
In all three heats, Earnhart waited until the second half before taking the lead.
“That’s something I’ve worked on, being comfortable in a group,” he said. “I save my energy so my finish can be fast.”
The fastest time of the day came in the morning qualifications from Murphy Kimball of Anchorage. He set the pace in 2:43.51 and made it as far as the semifinals in the afternoon.
In the women’s race, Pulles enjoyed a dramatic victory thanks to a finish-line lunge.
She edged Utah’s Erica Laven by .03 of a second to win with a time of 3:11.63.
Laven was the fastest in 3:08.87. Pulles, who had a successful college career at UAFand trains in Minnesota, had the third-best time.
Former UAF skier Mariel Pulles leads Lucinda Anderson into the stadium during the women’s SuperTour sprint final at Kincaid Park. Photo by Scott Broadwell
