Elite-level domestic racing got underway in the US this weekend with the Anchorage (Alaska) Winterstart races.
Normally the racing season starts in early November in Fairbanks, Alaska with North American Continental Cup races, which are then followed by another weekend of Continental Cup races in Anchorage. But this season the US Ski Team elected to go to Finland instead of Alaska, and the Canadian Team had good snow in their own backyard. Without the National Teams, Fairbanks decided not to hold their opener races this year.
Anchorage went ahead with their races, but had to wait a week longer than planned. Originally scheduled for last weekend, the races were delayed when warm weather threatened to melt away the snowpack. The snow survived (for the time-being anyway), and the race was held on a very challenging 4.7K loop on the Anchorage Hillside trails.
The men raced a 10K free technique race, while the women raced a 5K Free. Even without the National Teams, Anchorage was able to rely on its impressive amount of local talent (University of Alaska Anchorage team, Alaska WinterStars, Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center (APUNSC), and several former Olympians) to hold a top-level event.
In the women's race, 2002 Olympian and current National Sprint Champion Kikkan Randall led an APUNSC sweep of the top five with a 16 second victory over junior Tazlina Mannix. 2002 Olympian Aelin Peterson was third.
The men's field lost a number of top skiers due to the one-week delay. Lars Flora, James Southam, and Scott McArt all had to leave town this week to attend training camps in West Yellowstone. But despite their absence, there were still plenty of fast skiers in the race. Erik Flora, a coach for the APUNSC program, edged out his fellow coach Frode Lillefjell for the win by 13 seconds. Andrew Hunter, a recent Dartmouth College grad now skiing for APUNSC was third.
The USSA points race penalty was approximately 62 points (estimated) for the men – not bad for a race with three coaches in the top five (UAA coach Trond Flagstad was fifth, between two of his top athletes). The women's penalty was just over 100.
The next major stop on the domestic circuit will be later this week in West Yellowstone, Montana.
ANCHORAGE WINTERSTART FIS/USSA SKI RACE RESULTS
Hillside Park (Freestyle)
11/20/04
Women (4.7k)
 1) Kikkan Randall        14:54.2
 2) Tazlina Mannix        15:20.6
 3) Aelin Peterson        15:40.1
 4) Erin J Quinn-Hurst    15:56.9
 5) Aleta Phelps          16:57.2
 6) Kelsey Coolidge       17:20.4
 7) Hanna Johnson         17:25.8
 8) Erin Hamilton         17:27.6
 9) Jamie Bronga          18:32.7
10) Ky Eiben              18:35.8
11) Kati Clark            19:01.7
12) Kalen Ramey           19:24.7
13) Sarah Schoen          19:36.4
14) Rachel F Saul         19:39.9
15) Katherine Clark       21:00.2
Men (9.4k)
 1) Eric Flora            26:14.1
 2) Frode Lillefjell      26:27.5
 3) Andrew Hunter         26:33.2
 4) Kjetil Hagtvedt Dammen 26:34.8
 5) Trond Flagstad        27:02.1
 6) Zachary Violett       27:02.3
 7) Cory Smith            27:19.9
 8) Benjamin Sonntag      27:38.1
 9) Brian Gregg           28:05.0
10) Colin Quinn-Hurst     28:07.8
11) Adam Verrier          28:12.3
12) Patrick Johnson       28:48.4
13) Paul Schauer          28:53.4
14) Zachary Hall          29:00.8
15) Casey Fagerquist      29:38.5
16) Jason Lamoreaux       29:44.4
17) Cole Talbot           30:36.8
18) William Ross          31:05.3
19) Ryan J Mcclure        31:29.2
20) Trond B Jensen        31:58.2
21) Ian J Davis           32:59.5
22) Anson Moxness         33:02.1
23) Galen Johnston        33:24.0
24) Chester Fehrmann      33:38.8
25) Mark Paprocki         34:38.4
26) John Amor             37:36.5
27) Sam Flora             43:38.3
28) Konstantin A Gaskov   47:02.0
