US Nationals

It was a perfect blue bird day to hammer out the US National Marathon Championships at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle. The 30/50km mass start freestyle was the final event of the US Distance National Championships and Super Tour. The women’s 30 km race separated into two packs of three in the first 10km. The lead pack contained US Ski Team/APU’s Tazlina Mannix, US Ski Team’s Elizabeth Stephen, and Canadian Ski Team’s Brittany...

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (March 30) – Kris Freeman (Andover, NH) earned his third U.S. title of the season Friday – and his ninth overall – while Taz Mannix (Anchorage, AK) collected the first of her career in the pursuit races opening the last phase of the U.S. Cross Country Championships. The long-distance races from the championship are doubling as SuperTour Finals at the Nordic Heritage Center. Freeman, a two-time Olympian, led the 15K classic technique...

It was a fast course for the US National 15/30km pursuit at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle. It was an excellent day of spring racing with temperatures in the high twenties, no wind, and mostly cloudy skies which kept the snow consistent. Kris Freeman of the US Ski Team took control of the men’s race putting a gap on the field 3km into the race to come into the exchange at 15km with...

Presque Isle, ME—The Nordic Heritage Center is busy readying for the arrival of the finest cross-country marathon skiers in the land. For the second year in a row, the northern Maine venue has been selected as the site of the TAMC International Spring Series. This year, the series will also feature the U.S. Cross-Country Skiing Distance National Championships. This year’s program will include not only the men’s and women’s marathon championship, but also the pursuit...

We hadn't planned on posting any more photos from the Nationals Sprint relay, but we just got this batch and they were so good we had to share them. All photos taken by junior ski racer Scott Krankkala. Full size full resolution prints and original files can be purchased by contacting scandoscott@gmail.com .

Another bunch of photos from Sunday's exciting team sprint event. Photos by Kevin Sweeney of Swix.

All photos by Erik Mundahl of the MTU ski team. Kikkan and Valaas Liz Quinley Mens heat Tazlina Mannix Lindsay Williams

2007 U.S. Cross Country Championships January 1-7, 2007 Michigan Tech Nordic Training Center Houghton MI HOUGHTON, Mich. (Jan. 7) – Two-time Olympian Lars Flora (Anchorage, AK) and Chad Giese (St. Paul, MN) upset Olympians Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) and Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA) in Sunday's freestyle technique 1.3K team sprint, which ended the U.S. Cross Country Championships at Michigan Tech. Koos had a binding malfunction just before tagging Newell in his third and final 1K...

Newell, Randall Capture Sprint Gold Medals HOUGHTON, Mich. (Jan. 6) – Andy Newell (Shaftsbury, VT) grabbed his first national title and Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) earned her first of the week after two silver medals as they won classic technique 1K sprints Saturday at the U.S. Cross Country Championships at Michigan Tech. Newell held off two of his Olympic teammates, Torin Koos (Leavenworth, WA) and Chris Cook (Rhinelander, WI) – and delighted his parents who...

All photos by Scott Krankkala.

US Cross Country Championships Classic Sprint Laura Valaas's streak of sprint victories finally came to an end today at the US Cross Country Championships. But it took the woman with the best Olympic and World Cup finishes in US history to do it. Kikkan Randall (APU) earned her first US title of the year by beating Valaas (CXC) to the line in the women's A-Final. It was the first time the two women have faced...

Individual Results Unofficial Sprint Results Sprint Qualification Competition Michigan Tech Trails Sat, Jan 6, 2007 Houghton, MI Rank Bib Name YOB Affiliation Class Behind Elapsed Time Womens 1k Classic Field: 144 PDF: http://itiming.com/raceresults/222-f_sprint_qual.pdf 1 225 Randall, Kikkan 82 APU/USST FSR 02:40 0 00:00.0 00:03:28.62 2 B226 Valaas, Laura 84 CXC FU23 02:42 1 00:02.1 00:03:30.78 3 251 Tyler, Parker 89 Stratton Mountain School FJR 02:43 2 00:04.4 00:03:33.05 4 239 Rice, Kasandra 83 Univ of...

All photos by Erik Mundahl of the MTU ski team Kate Whitcomb Kikkan Randall Laura Valaas Andre Watt Chris Harvey Kris Freeman Martin Banderud Phil Violett Zach Violett

Kris Freeman put on another impressive display of speed and power in the 15K free technique race at the 2007 US Cross Country Champhionships in Houghton, Michigan today. Freeman won by 47 seconds over Lars Flora (Subaru Factory Team). Third place went to James Southam (Rossignol). Law school student Carl Swenson (Subaru) showed that he hasn’t slowed down much in ‘retirement’ by placing fourth, while CXC’s Garrot Kuzzy was fifth. With each lap, Freeman increased...

Alexa Turzian, junior skier from Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, has been challenging the top seniors on the SuperTour for the past two months. On Thursday, she had a breakthrough performance to earn a National Championship in the women’s 10K skate event. Turzian was in 6th place after the first of two laps, but used a scorching second lap to win by 11 seconds over Kikkan Randall (APU). For Randall, it was her second consecutive...

All photos by Erik Mundahl of the MTU ski team David Chamberlain Karl Walczak Caitlin Compton Kristina Owen