Men's Results Women's Results
RUMFORD, Maine – After a photo finish and two hours of deliberation by race officials it was declared that Alaska Nanooks junior
Tyler Kornfield earned a spot on the podium with a third-place finish in the senior men's 1.6 kilometer freestyle sprint finals on the first day of the U.S. Cross Country Championships at Black Hills of Maine.
The day opened with the qualifying races, which saw the Blue and Gold advance over half the team with eight out of thirteen skiers (five men and three women) moving on to quarterfinals or beyond. The top 30 racers in the qualifying rounds advanced to the senior heats (regardless of age), while the subsequent 24 racers under age 20 participated in the junior heats.
Kornfield (Anchorage, AK) was tops for Alaska out of the qualifying rounds, taking 17
th in three minutes and 12.09 seconds. Rookie
Logan Hanneman was fast on his heels crossing next in 18
th (3:12.48), while senior Erik Soederstroem was 28
th (3:15.78).
The trio advanced to the senior quarterfinals, and Kornfield was the lone Nanook to make the finals. In the “A” final, Kornfield edged Sylvan Ellefson at the line to take third overall for his second trip to the podium in the last three years. He finished behind the sprint champion Torin Koos and runner-up Dakota Blackhorse von Jess.
Despite not making it past the quarterfinals, Hanneman was the top junior skier (Under 20) on the day in 19
th overall.
“
Logan Hanneman was the top junior in the country today and 19
th overall so the chances are looking good for him to achieve his goal and make the World Junior Championships team,” said head coach
Scott Jerome.
Soederstroem had a rough break after taking a spill and breaking a pole on the first uphill in his quarterfinal race.
“By the time he got a new pole the pack had gotten away from him and there was nothing he could do at that point,” added coach Jerome.
In the junior heats, rookies
Ludwig Schott and Jonas Loeffler made the “A” final but had exhausted their reserves and finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
For the women's team, two qualified for the senior quarterfinals. Senior
Rebecca Konieczny narrowly missed making the semifinals after falling short in the final stretch of her heat.
“Rebecca was 28
th (after the qualifier) and ended up 4
th in her heat but she raced well,” said Jerome. “She was 20
th overall in the final standings so she moved up eight spots through the finals so that was a really good race for her.”
Junior
Marit Rjabov suffered a similar fate to Soederstroem with a broken pole on the first uphill and was unable to recover and catch the pack of the other five racers. She ended the day of racing in 29
th overall.
Sophomore
Heidi O'Connor-Brook qualified for the junior "B” final and wound up 12th overall in the junior bracket of 24.
Alaska's other race competitors included seniors
Ian Wilkinson (64
th) and
Alex Morris (70
th) on the men's side and sophomore
Heather Edic (81
st) and junior
Crystal Pitney (89
th) for Alaska's women.
Missing from the trails was sophomore
Raphaela Sieber, who didn't race Tuesday in order to rest for the distance events slated for Thursday and Friday.
Despite being without the services of one of its top returning women's skiers, Jerome was pleased with the day's results.
“Over half of our team moved up and that's really awesome when you have that type of performance,” said head coach
Scott Jerome. “(Assistant coaches) Brian (Pepper) and Matt (Dunlap) did a great job today and were both totally on top of it: waxing and race support-wise we were able to give the athletes really good support we were happy to see them take advantage of it.”
After a break in action tomorrow, the events resume on Thursday with the individual start freestyle races (women's 10k, men's 15k) and continue Friday with a women's 20k and men's 30k mass start classic race.
