Fairbanks skier Kendall Kramer is Alaska’s newest national champion — something she knew several minutes before a cheering crowd at Kincaid Park welcomed her at the finish line Sunday afternoon.

Kramer and Erica Laven of Sweden skied tip-to-tail in the final few hundred meters of the women’s 20-kilometer classical race, but by then Kramer was confident she would win the mass-start race.

“I was feeling really, really good going into the last lap and figured I had it,” Kramer said after beating Laven by 2.4 seconds for the first gold medal of her career.

The two had skied with each other for the duration of the hour-long race, and as time went by Kramer noticed Laven was expending more effort than she was.

After emerging from the difficult Lekisch trail, which provided about 1.5 kilometers of a 5-kilometer loop used for the race, Laven’s ski tips were inches away from Kramer’s ski tails.

As they double-poled their way into the stadium for the final stretch of racing, Kramer still led by a ski length. As the finish line approached Laven stepped into the adjacent set of tracks, hoping she could move past Kramer or set up a finish-line lunge for the victory.

Kramer simply accelerated. No last-second drama needed.

“I was taking it really, really chill on double-poling (throughout the race),” Kramer said. “Once you get past Lekisch it’s only double-pole, and I could tell that her effort was stronger than mine in this last lap so I knew I had energy to spare. And so I just used it.”

Kramer’s remarks came during a post-race interview with Kikkan Randall, executive director of the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage. They aired during livestream coverage that featured commentary by Nina Kemppel, creating a special convergence of Alaska cross-country ski talents.

Kramer, 22, is in her final season of collegiate skiing at UAF. A member of the U.S. Ski Team’s development squad, she’s not so much an up-and-comer as a known factor, viewed by many as one of the faces of the future for U.S. skiing.

Randall, 42, is an Olympic gold medalist and five-time Olympian who retired after her triumph at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She has galvanized the sport nationally and statewide.

Kemppel, 54, is a four-time Olympian whose career ended just as Randall’s began — the 2002 Winter Olympics were the last for Kemppel and the first for Randall. Kemppel won a record 19 national championships and was one of Randall’s inspirations.

This day belonged to Kramer.

She collected her second medal of the championships and the third of her career — she claimed silver in Thursday’s 10K freestyle and placed second in last year’s 20K.

Kramer said her plan was to go with the flow at the start of the race. “With these longer races you have to see where you’re at with the pack and just roll with whatever happens,” she said.

She skied relaxed and with confidence on trails she’s familiar with thanks to her high school days with West Valley High School and her college days with the Nanooks.

“It was a pretty chill pace for me,” she said.

Kramer joins a long list of women who are Alaska-grown, Olympic-caliber skiers — Judy Rabinowitz, Marge Mahoney, Barbara Britch, Lynn Spencer, Sue Forbes and of course Kemppel and Randall, to name just a few.

Also grabbing a podium spot Sunday was Anchorage’s Luke Jager, who took the silver medal in the men’s 20K. It was his third medal in three races at the championship

Jager, 24, paced the lead pack for much of the race along with the University of Denver’s Andreas Kirkeng.

Jager finished third after losing touch with Kirkeng during the final trip to the Lekisch trail and later getting passed by Dartmouth’s Johnny Hagenbuch, whose late charge put him in medal contention.

Hagenbuch was awarded the gold and Jager got the silver because Kirkeng is from Norway and ineligible for medals at the U.S. championships.

Kirkeng, who also won Saturday’s classic sprint, coasted to victory in 50 minutes, 47.5 seconds.

Hagenbuch, who edged Kirkeng by eight-tenths of a second to win the 10K freestyle on Thursday, was next in 50:58.0.

Jager finished in 50:59.2, followed by Denver’s Florian Knopf of Germany (51:03.3) and the University of Colorado’s Will Koch of Vermont (51:11.2.). Koch picked up the bronze medal because Knopf is also ineligible for U.S. medals.

Next came four Alaskans who joined Jager in the top 10. All train with Alaska Pacific University’s nordic club.

Michael Earnhart was sixth in 51:11.5, three-tenths of a second behind Koch to narrowly miss a medal. Garrett Butts was seventh (51:13.2), Hunter Wonders was eighth (51:17.6) and Scott Patterson was ninth (51:25.4).

Anchorage’s Peter Hinds, skiing for UAA, had an impressive showing by placing 16th (52:14.4); he was 31st Thursday in the 10K.

But the star of the day for the Alaska men was arguably 15-year-old Jack Leveque.

Leveque, who skis for Service High and the Alaska Winter Stars, won the 10-kilometer junior-level race by more than four seconds to rule a field of 114 skiers, most of them a few years older than him.

His time of 26:22.3 put him 4.2 seconds ahead of the top U20 skier, second-place Benjamin Barbier of Montana State, and 4.9 seconds ahead of the top U18 skier, third-place William Bentley, a high school senior in Colorado.

Four other Alaskans placed in the top 10 — sixth-place Noa Kam-Magruder of the Alaska Winter Stars, seventh-place Cole Flowers of UAF, eighth-place Vebjòrn Flagstad of the Alaska Winter Stars and 10th-place Oskar Flora of APU.

In the women’s junior race, 17-year-old Lena Poduska of Wyoming won in 31:01.5. APU’s Mia Stiassny delivered a top-10 result for Alaska by placing ninth in 31:58.4.

The senior women’s race was the closest of the day, although it was no contest at the very end as Kramer slammed the door shut on Laven, who skis for the University of Utah.

Kramer won in 58:17.2, followed by Lavin in 58:19.6. APU’s Renae Anderson placed sixth in 59:59.4.

“I definitely was not predicting this,” Kramer said. “Once I realized going into the last lap that I could have my first national championship and not settle for second, even though that would’ve been good, I just tried for it. And so that’s awesome.”

Sunday’s races marked the end of the national championships, which drew nearly 400 skiers from across the country to Anchorage. Many of them will be back at Kincaid Park on Tuesday for a Super Tour freestyle sprint race.