Photos from Saturday afternoon's sprint heats at US Nationals.
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US Nationals
US Nationals is the premier event of the season. The top skiers in the country battle for championship titles. Coverage of events and related news.
Sun Valley’s Colin Rodgers lost his shot at the 2010 Olympic team after a battle with compartment syndrome last year. But in Saturday’s skate sprint prelim at the 2011 U.S. championships in Rumford, he showed that he still has his speed. With the men’s qualifier concluded, live timing showed Rodgers edging CXC’s Garrott Kuzzy by a tenth of a second, with Simi Hamilton (USST) in third. Torin Koos (Methow ODT) was fourth, and Tim Reynolds...
Diggins Takes Women’s Freestyle Sprint Qualifier at US Nationals – UPDATED
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 8, 2011
At last season’s U.S. national championships in Anchorage, Jessie Diggins was a very strong junior skier, but not a whole lot more than that. Fast forward 12 months, and she’s transformed herself into a legitimate title threat through a post-grad year with Central Cross-Country’s Team Vertical Limit. After popping a couple podiums in domestic races in the fall, Diggins put the country’s elite women on notice in Saturday’s skate sprint qualifier at the U.S. championships...
2011 Championships to Wrap Up With Skate Sprint
FasterSkierJanuary 8, 2011
One last national title is up for grabs on Saturday in Rumford, ME, as a skate sprint wraps up the 2011 U.S. championships. Rock-hard, borderline icy conditions should make for a lightning-fast, hectic day of racing around the 1.4-kilometer course. The men’s field is headlined by Torin Koos (Methow ODT), but he’ll have his hands full with Simi Hamilton, the U.S. Ski Team’s 23-year-old sprint stud. Koos won last Sunday’s classic sprint in convincing fashion,...
USSA Announces J1-Scando, Junior Worlds Teams
FasterSkierJanuary 7, 2011
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association announced qualifiers for this year’s Junior World Championships (JWC) and the J1-Scando Trip (J1S) on Twitter this morning. This year’s JWC takes place in Otepaa, Estonia, while the J1S trip – an annual competition for younger juniors – is in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden. Athletes could prequalify for the JWC with outstanding finishes at SuperTour events throughout the last year; the rest of the two teams were selected, primarily, based on...
With six laps, the women’s 20km freestyle at the US National Championships had no shortage of action. Here is a look at the effort of the podium finishers from Kris Dobie.
Stephen Stomps Her Way to 20 K Victory
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 6, 2011
The Alaska Pacific University women’s team was finally dethroned on Thursday—but it took a world-class athlete to do it. After Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen took the first two races of this week’s U.S. National Championships in Rumford, the U.S. Ski Team’s Liz Stephen finally broke up the monopoly with a persuasive win in the women’s 20 k. Brooks preserved her squad’s pride by placing second, 58 seconds down, while Morgan Arritola (USST) was third....
The men’s 30km freestyle at the US National Championship was as exciting as it gets in cross-country ski racing. Here is a glimpse at road to the men’s podium through the lenses of Kris Dobie.
Interval start races don’t usually end with desperate lunges for the finish line. But that’s exactly how Thursday’s 30 k national championship concluded in Rumford—with CXC’s Tad Elliott sprawled on his back, the winner over APU’s Lars Flora. The scene may have looked ridiculous, but Elliott needed every inch. After an hour and ten minutes of racing, his winning margin over Flora was a mere tenth of a second. “I knew it was really tight,”...
The CCSA got its competitive season off to an impressive start at the Chisholm Ski Club on Wednesday, as the association’s skiers landed a podium spot, four top-10, and six top-20 finishes in the classic races at U.S. Nationals in Rumford, Maine. In both the men’s 15K and women’s 10K events, the story of the day belong to Alaska. The Nanooks placed four skiers in the top 10 and five in the top 20, landing five of the...
It took a week, but winter has finally returned to Rumford, ME. In the last two days at the 2011 U.S. National Championships, the tropical climate that dogged organizers has departed, replaced by temperatures far below freezing. With distance skate races on tap for Thursday, the 2.7-kilometer loop at Black Mountain has been widened in spots, augmented by snowmaking and shoveling. The men and women will be doing 11 and seven laps, respectively, for a total...
Men racing in Thursday’s 30 k freestyle in Rumford had better hope that temperatures don’t necessitate lobster mitts. Because they’re going to need all 10 fingers to keep track of their progress. On Wednesday evening, the race jury for the U.S. National Championships chose to switch Thursday’s race format, from mass start to interval start. Men will race 11 times around the 2.7 k loop in Rumford, for a total of 29.7 kilometers, while women...
Going into the 15 k classic race in Rumford, APU’s Lars Flora had a total of four national championships to his name. But to say that he had endured a dry spell would be an understatement: it had been 1098 days since his last title, which came in Houghton, MI in 2008. After two tough seasons, and a demoralizing defeat in Sunday’s sprint, the 32-year-old Flora finally broke through on Thursday to collect his fifth...
In the women’s 10 k classic in Rumford on Wednesday, it was an athlete in the familiar blue, white and black of Alaska Pacific University to climb to the top step of the podium. It just wasn’t the one you’d expect. After Holly Brooks’s win in Sunday’s classic sprint, she was a clear favorite coming into the first distance race of the 2011 U.S. National Championships. But instead of Brooks coming out on top, it...
Classic distance races are on tap for the U.S. National Championships in Rumford, ME on Wednesday, after two days of rest to allow for optimal course preparation. Volunteers, coaches, and even U.S. Ski Team member Liz Stephen worked with heavy equipment and shovels throughout Tuesday, leaving a 2.5-kilometer loop available for racing at Rumford’s Black Mountain. Under clear skies and with temperatures cooler—in the 20’s—the action gets started with the women’s 10 k at 10...
Tuesday Video Updates from Rumford
FasterSkierJanuary 4, 2011
Thirty hours of snowmaking has left varying levels of cover on the trails in Rumford, the site of the 2011 U.S. National Championships. On Tuesday morning, athletes trained and coaches tested on a 900-meter loop, while organizers and volunteers were using shovels, dump trucks, groomers, and even chainsaws to prepare a course for Wednesday’s classic distance races. Their efforts were focused primarily on a one-kilometer extension to the 1.4-k sprint course used for Sunday’s classic...
Chief of Comp: “A Very Productive Day” in Rumford
Nathaniel HerzJanuary 3, 2011
Organizers and volunteers were working tirelessly on Monday to replenish the snow on Rumford’s depleted trails, as competitors at the 2011 U.S. National Championships fanned out north and west in search of skiing. Snowmaking at Black Mountain began at midnight on Monday morning, and by early that evening, Chief of Competition Carlie Casey said that Rumford’s Chisholm Ski Club was poised to pull off successful classic distance races on Wednesday. “We had a very productive...
The first day of the US Nationals Championships saw some close finishes. Here is a quick look as seen through the lens of Swix Sports’ Andy Canniff.
In her unlikely path from APU coach to elite ski racer, Holly Brooks’s career has taken her to some amazing places, namely the 2010 Olympics. But for all her success over the past two years, there was one spot she still hadn’t set foot until this weekend: the top step of the podium at the U.S. National Championships. In Sunday’s classic sprint in Rumford, Brooks checked another achievement off her list with an emphatic display...