Erik Bjornsen, 22, of Winthrop, Wash. and Becca Rorabaugh, 24, of Fairbanks, Ak. captured U.S. titles in the 15-kilometer and 10k individual start classic races Saturday, leading a three-medal effort by Alaska Pacific University Nordic at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships.
Competing at the 2002 Olympic venue at Soldier Hollow, Utah, Bjornsen earned his second straight national championship after his six-second victory in last year’s 15k individual start freestyle event at the same site.
Bjornsen (39:03) out-skied runner-up Reese Hannaman, 24, of APU Nordic Center by 11 seconds. Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team racer Matt Gelso, 25, placed seventh of 185 male finishers (198 starters) with a time of 39:58, 55 seconds back. He was the fourth senior.
“Solid performance,” said SVSEF Gold Team head coach Colin Rodgers describing Gelso’s classic effort.
Rorabaugh (29:09) won her first career national title after her U.S. Championships silver medal in 2009. She was 14.2 seconds faster than Caitlin Gregg, 33, of Minneapolis in the 143-racer field.
The big news for the SVSEF Gold Team was an outstanding eighth-place finish by 22-year-old Mary Rose (31:13), only 2:03 back and the first-place U.S. U-23 female racer.
It put Rose second in the qualification criteria for the World Junior/U-23 World Championships team to be chosen this week, Rodgers said.
SVSEF Gold Team or alumni women jammed the finishing spots from 10-15 in Saturday’s classic race.
Recovering from sickness, 26-year-old Chelsea Holmes (31:18, 2:08 back) placed 10th and Rose Kemp, 23, was 15th (31:42) despite having a crash on the course.
SVSEF alumni Annie Pokorny, 21, of Stratton Mountain School (31:31) and Sloan Storey, 19, of the University of Utah (31:36) placed 12th and 13th—Storey winning the U-20 class. Maggie Williams, 18, of Univ. of Vermont finished 33rd and was the fifth U-20 finisher at 32:54.
Others: 101—Laurel Fiddler, 18, of Bates College in 35:55. 123—Katie Feldman, 17, in 37:36. 141—Loni Unser, 16, in 42:57.
For the men, two-time Univ. of Utah All-American Miles Havlick, 24, placed 14th overall in 40:28 (1:25 back) and Ketchum’s Mike Sinnott, 28, was 26th in 41:27 (2:23 back). SVSEF Comp Team racer Stephen Pfeiffer, 18, finished 165th in 49:45.
Havlick was 10th overall Sunday in the national skate sprint event won by Bridger Ski Foundation’s Torin Koos, 33, of Leavenworth, Wash. for his ninth national crown. Sinnott made the quarterfinals of the men’s skate sprint.
Koos said, “It’s a new course. It made for some really great racing. Everybody was fighting super hard and it was clean. It was real test for everything. You had the climbing, you had the descending, you had the tactics and you had the finish.”
In the women’s skate sprint, SVSEF racer Kemp finished fifth in the “A Final” won by 25-year-old Bridger Ski Foundation racer Jennie Bender over Caitlin Gregg, 33. Both Storey and Pokorny made the quarterfinals.
Still to come at nationals: Today’s mass start skate races, 30k men and 20k women (10k/5k juniors), followed by classic sprint qualifying and final heats Friday, Jan. 10. U.S. long course nationals at 50k/30k distances occur during the USSA SuperTour finals March 23-29 at Anchorage, Ak.
93 skiers brave brisk wind for Snowmaker
The first local cross-country ski race of 2014 came off without a hitch Saturday as 93 racers visited Baker Creek and Prairie Creek in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area for the The Elephant’s Perch-sponsored Snowmaker.
Courses for the classic racing measured 11 kilometers long course, 7k short course and 2.5k for the kids.
Earning their first career wins were three Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation racers—Danny Graves on the long course for the men, Emily Siegel on the short course women and Carter Ros on the short course men.
Race organizer Rick Kapala, SVSEF Nordic program director, said, “Really cold start with a brisk north wind blowing, but good course considering the low snow conditions. Thanks to the Rec District groomer boys for their work and the Perch for hosting.”
Results follow:
Jan. 4, 2014, the Baker Creek/Prairie Creek Snowmaker cross-country races north of Ketchum—sponsored by The Elephant’s Perch of Ketchum with the support of the Blaine County Recreation District, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation and volunteers. A total 93 skiers, 47 male and 46 female. Finishing times in minutes and seconds, with age after a racer’s name. Average age was 51 among the 37 finishers on the long course.
11 KILOMETER
Female
| 1—Betsy Youngman, 54 |
54:09:00 |
| 2—Muffy Ritz, 56 |
55:56:00 |
| 3—Laura Todd, 44 |
56:12:00 |
| 4—Gabriele Andersen, 68 |
56:50:00 |
| 5—Kim Kawaguchi, 52 |
1.01:52 |
| 6—Joney Otteson, 53 |
1.04:40 |
| 7—Karen Brown, 56 |
1.05:11 |
| 8—Susan Thoreson, 53 |
1.07:08 |
| 9—Linda McClatchy, 64 |
1.08:38 |
| 10—Tess O’Sullivan, 40 |
1.13:21 |
| 11—Katherine Sheldon, 56 |
1.13:35 |
| 12—Karen Simpson, 62 |
1.21:14 |
Male
| 1—Danny Graves, 16 |
45:09:00 |
| 2—Wyatt Fereday, 25 |
45:20:00 |
| 3—Kurt Wolf, 33 |
45:32:00 |
| 4—Jon Engen, 56 |
47:21:00 |
| 5—Charlie Fereday, 21 |
47:49:00 |
| 6—Nate Thomas, 17 |
48:31:00 |
| 7—John Reuter, 29 |
48:48:00 |
| 8—Nate Nasvik, 17 |
51:36:00 |
| 9—Bob Youngman, 57 |
52:41:00 |
| 10—Del Pletcher, 69 |
53:32:00 |
| 11—Jeff Hunteman, 45 |
54:51:00 |
| 12—Kris Thoreson, 56 |
55:17:00 |
| 13—Rick Knoebel, 60 |
55:42:00 |
| 14—Jim McClatchy, 61 |
56:29:00 |
| 15—Andy Andrews, 72 |
1.00:16 |
| 16—Jeff Wilhelm, 55 |
1.00:26 |
| 17—T Schulp, 68 |
1.00:41 |
| 18—Ralph Johnson, 65 |
1.01:15 |
| 19—Jeff Fereday, 64 |
1.03:53 |
| 20—Mike Dunham, 64 |
1.05:09 |
| 21—Brad Walker, 31 |
1.05:45 |
| 22—Dick Andersen, 66 |
1.07:04 |
| 23—Tullio Celano, 71 |
1.10:31 |
| 24—Paul Corrigan, 62 |
1.11:11 |
| 25—Kyle Rafford, 46 |
1.11:12 |
7 KILOMETER
Female
| 1—Emily Siegel, 15 |
34:45:00 |
| 2—Annika Landis, 15 |
35:08:00 |
| 3—Samantha Benzing, 14 |
37:23:00 |
| 4—Grace Gorham, 16 |
44:10:00 |
| 5—Cheyanne Stopol, 17 |
44:39:00 |
| 6—Brenda Spackman, 52 |
45:12:00 |
| 7—Grace Dyck, 72 |
45:58:00 |
| 8—Sophia DeKlotz, 16 |
49:35:00 |
| 9—Liza Wilson, 61 |
50:05:00 |
| 10—Lucy Bourret, 52 |
52:11:00 |
| 11—Charlotte Alexander, 61 |
52:22:00 |
| 12—Gloria Kimball, 59 |
53:24:00 |
| 13—Kelly Martin, 52 |
54:23:00 |
| 14—Jan Wygle, 61 |
1.01:30 |
| 15—Paula Perry, 59 |
1.14:46 |
| 16—Carole Mutzal, 51 |
1.15:52 |
| 17—Kiki Martin, 67 |
1.21:26 |
Male
| 1—Carter Ros, 15 |
28:57:00 |
| 2—River Vorse, 15 |
29:14:00 |
| 3—Zach Williams, 14 |
30:12:00 |
| 4—Noah Brown, 15 |
31:02:00 |
| 5—Ben Brunelle, 15 |
31:54:00 |
| 6—Taylor Koth, 14 |
32:02:00 |
| 7—Cooper Roquet, 14 |
32:23:00 |
| 8—Nick Edwards, 15 |
32:43:00 |
| 9—James Rolloff, 14 |
33:12:00 |
| 10—Isaac Chrisman, 15 |
33:21:00 |
| 11—Derek Thompson, 16 |
34:20:00 |
| 12—Abraham Brown, 12 |
36:03:00 |
| 13—Landon Nurge, 14 |
39:43:00 |
| 14—Pat Simpson, 52 |
40:10:00 |
| 15—Kiran Merchant, 14 |
41:21:00 |
| 16—Roger Miller, 70 |
49:25:00 |
| 17—Mel Dyck, 72 |
52:08:00 |
| 18—Sean Halford, 12 |
57:04:00 |
2.5 KILOMETER
Female
| 1—Lily Brunelle, 13 |
14:54 |
| 2—Ella Wolter, 12 |
15:15 |
| 3—Michaela Petty, 13 |
16:19 |
| 4—Chloe Tanous, 12 |
16:41 |
| 5—Lane Allison, 12 |
17:58 |
| 6—Kirsys Campbell, 13 |
18:03 |
| 7—Katherine Estep, 12 |
18:15 |
| 8—Ellie Gorham, 12 |
18:24 |
| 9—Emma Kerr, 14 |
18:30 |
| 10—Anja Jensen, 11 |
20:29 |
| 11—Logan Smith, 9 |
21:08 |
| 12—Sascha Leidecker, 11 |
21:33 |
| 13—Kew Clayton, 11 |
22:28 |
| 14—Kate Horowitz, 11 |
23:03 |
| 15—Tia Vontver, 11 |
26:35:00 |
| 16—M Clayton, 13 |
28:03:00 |
| 17—Belle Clayton, 10 |
29:48:00 |
Male
| 1—Johnny Hagenbuch, 12 |
14:28 |
| 2—Jorgen Lawrence, 14 |
19:53 |
| 3—Cole Reese, 11 |
20:13 |
| 4—Ryan Relling, 9 |
28:59:00 |
