March 29, 2008 (Fairbanks, Alaska) – Liz Stephen of the U.S. Ski Team wasn’t able to shake her rivals on the classic-technique portion of the skiathlon on Friday night at the 2008 U.S. Distance National Championships. The 21-year-old from East Montpelier, Vt., however, skated away from them on the freestyle leg of the 15km race, claiming her second national title in 45 minutes, 39 seconds.

Stephen was virtually tied with Nicole DeYong (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation) and USST teammates Morgan Arritola and Lindsay Williams at the halfway point, where all 23 skiers switched from classical gear to skating skis and poles.

But she seized a lead with a speedy 23-second transition. “I think exchanges don’t make or break the race, but they can really help you out,” Stephen said. “I was able to get away with a pretty good lead.”

Stephen, 5-foot-2 and 110 pounds, then extended the margin the rest of the way to finish 50 seconds ahead of Arritola and 80 seconds in front of Tazlina Mannix (APU). DeYong wound up fifth and Williams took seventh.

“I had a few hills picked out that if I was with someone, I wanted to really hammer it in those hills,’’ she said. “I was pretending that someone was with me, and I used the strategies I wanted to use going into it and it worked out today.’’

Friday’s win was Stephen’s first outright U.S. title: in 2006, she tied Kikkan Randall for the 5km freestyle crown.

It’s also the third major achievement this season for the former Alpine racer: Stephen won the 10km freestyle last week at the Canadian National Championships and claimed a bronze medal at the 2008 U23 World Championships in Italy.

Arritola, of Sun Valley, Idaho, credited her friend. “She’s always tough,” Arritola said of Stephen. “She’s strong, fast and she’s a great skier. She’s fun to ski with.”

Mannix, the defending national champion in the skiathlon, was in fifth place and still in striking range after the classic portion. She trailed by 25 seconds heading into skating, her stronger discipline. But a gaffe in the transition cost her, even though she still managed to ski onto the podium with the second-fastest skating leg.

Mannix accidentally grabbed two left-handed poles when she left for the freestyle portion. One of the poles was for classical skiing.
“It was the wrong height and it was for the wrong hand,’’ Mannix explained.

Halfway through the first of four skating laps, though, Mannix spotted her mother, Karen, who was watching with a pair of poles. Karen had to run hard to catch Tazlina and make the hand-off without breaking her momentum.

“My mom’s the same height and she saved the day,” said the 5’4” Mannix, who skipped the first two races of the Spring Series due to sickness.

Sunday’s 30km classic marathon, also for a national championship, concludes the week-long series of races. Mannix is the defending champ.

Full results here.

Full results with splits here.

Matias Saari is a reporter for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.