We all work better when we work together—that would seem to be the credo being employed by American skiers these days. At the conclusion of US Nationals at Utah’s Soldier Hollow, American skiing has rarely looked better, whether internationally or domestically.
The warm temps and blue skies of early week at the US Cross Country Ski National Championships gave way to, of all things, snow. Morning light came up on Soldier Hollow; snow drifted in rather than stormed, but flakes falling from the sky rather than blasting from trailside snow guns was a good late-week reminder for the ski community: despite all this season’s continental snow troubles (Alaskan excepted!), this is indeed a winter sport.
On that new snow—over six laps of a hill-heavy, rarely flat, 3.3 k course—skiers tackled the 20 k Skate Mass Start. A recurrent observation heard by coaches, ski administrators, and athletes was “You can’t quite believe how big this event has gotten.” Momentum was another word heard frequently throughout the week, as some of the biggest fields to ever race at US Nationals combined with daily reports of that day’s Tour de Ski, where American skiers enjoyed a banner day. Until Friday, though, the evidence was merely in the number of skiers on the start sheets, and the number of clubs from a greater number of places milling around Soldier Hollow’s makeshift race village. Seeing fields of 100 skiers wind up Soldier Hollow was a whole different type of confirmation of that momentum. Crowded fields of the fittest athletes in the country brought their own journeys in the sport, their numbered affiliations, and their collective abilities to ski together. The ground rumbled, shouts from the sidelines roared, and the field—at least in early stages of the races—seemed to become a singular thing. US skiing, moving together in concert, became something sublime that could be readily seen and felt.
Women’s 20 k Skate Mass Start
Of course, it was a ski race. After that roaring start up the hollow’s steady incline, the Women’s 20 k Mass Start field started to jockey for where and when to make a decisive move towards the National Championship.
When the race started at 10am, natural snow was falling, but hadn’t yet accumulated enough on the glazed deck of artificial snow. The course displayed one defining principle that dictated how the mass start would be raced: for every long climb on the Soldier Hollow course there was an equal or greater downhill that followed. If a skier was going to make a tactical move on an uphill, they had to be sure they could hold off their rivals on the subsequent downhill. For nearly six laps, a nine-skier lead pack waited for that move.
For much of the race, University of Alaska-Fairbanks’ Kendall Kramer was the leading presence at the front of the pack, hinting at the importance of pushing the transition between uphill and downhill in the fast snow by pushing over and well into each downhill. She was joined mid-race by Craftsbury Ski Club’s Margie Freed who—between apparent good skis and smart drafting—was able to join Kramer in the lowlands of the course and at times, push to form minor separation ahead of the field.
As Kramer and Freed headed into the final lap, they were joined by University of Vermont’s (UVM) Haley Brewster. Brewster and Kramer rounded the top with Freed in tow. In the final climb, Brewster made her decisive up-tick in pace, gaining separation over Kramer in an attempt to ward off a sprint finish after the final downhill. Likewise, Kramer gained separation over Freed, and Freed likewise from the rest of the field. The final stretch featured momentary celebrations, as each crossed with space between: Brewster in first, Kramer second, and Freed in third.
The win gave Brewster—a UVM Junior and former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail skier— her first national championship. The result also marked Kramer’s second national podium, after she finished third American in the skate sprint last year in Houghton, Michigan. It was also the first US Nationals podium for Freed. The Minnesota native is in the midst of her first season competing in Biathlon, having just completed her first stint on the IBU World Cup, making the 20 k skate result an auspicious one.
Men’s 20 k Skate Mass Start
By the time the Men’s field started at 12:15pm, the fresh flakes of the morning had accumulated significantly on top of the course’s artificial snow. In the Women’s morning races, the course (and the new snow) had been worked in. In the Men’s race, a new layer of natural snow now clashed with the fast-running, transformed artificial snow underneath. Reports of skis “catching” when they hit a particularly heavy patch of natural snow were heard throughout the finishing pen after the race, which reiterated premonitions many observers had of how the Men’s field would race the course.
With ski speeds diminished on downhills, there was a little more to be gained by an earlier attack in the Men’s race than in the Women’s race. For the right skier—with the right strategy—a race that was likely to become a mass start slog could be broken apart by an aggressive attack.
That skier turned out to be Dartmouth’s John Steel Hagenbuch. Hagenbuch waited near the front of the fifteen-skier lead pack until the start of the fourth lap. Then, he accelerated over the top of the fifth lap’s initial climb and pressed on, alone, through the last five kilometers of the race. Hagenbuch’s move was followed by other skiers testing their own long-range attacks as University of Utah’s (UU) Frenchman, Tom Mancini, and UU teammate and British-Canadian skier, Joe Davies, were able to make subsequent breaks in the field. Hagenbuch’s final gap was a commanding 40 seconds on second place Mancini. Davies rounded out the podium in third place, 54 seconds off the lead. The pair of Peter Wolter (Sun Valley), and Elijah Weenig (University of Denver) came next in fourth and fifth to round out the American podium.
The win was the second national championship for Hagenbuch after his victory in the 10 k Individual Start Skate at US Nationals last year. Mancini scored his first podium at US Nationals with his runner-up finish. Davies finished a strong week in which he also podiumed in Tuesday’s 10 k classic. Davies will represent Great Britain at Junior World Ski Championships later this month in Planica, Slovenia.
US Nationals Bids Farewell to Soldier Hollow
US Nationals concluded with Friday’s races. As they did, the snow started to gather again in the sky over Utah heralding the start of this ski season in earnest. Some Nationals competitors now know where they’ll be racing later this season: qualifying for trips, securing spots on national teams for World Junior/U23 Ski Championships, or possibly earning starts on the World Cup. For US Skiing, in general, the conclusion of Nationals revealed another world of possibilities as many in Soldier Hollow this week dared to dream bigger. The United States ski community now goes out into the world as one, demonstrating the credo that’s transformed the sport during this generation: we all work better when we work together.
Full US Nationals 20 k skate mass start RESULTS
Tobias Albrigsten contributed photos to this coverage of US Nationals. A full gallery from Friday’s Skate Race is available on his website here, and you can follow him on Instagram @UntraceableG.
Ben Theyerl
Ben Theyerl was born into a family now three-generations into nordic ski racing in the US. He grew up skiing for Chippewa Valley Nordic in his native Eau Claire, Wisconsin, before spending four years racing for Colby College in Maine. He currently mixes writing and skiing while based out of Crested Butte, CO, where he coaches the best group of high schoolers one could hope to find.
