February 01, 2017 (Soldier Hollow, UT) – American Hunter Wonders from Anchorage put together two solid laps on a challenging loop to finish 16th in the Junior Men’s 10km FR Individual Start as Russia swept the podium.

Vladislav Vechkanov started 59th and skied negative splits to take a 7.9-second victory over teammates Egor Kazarinov in second, and Yaroslav Rybochkin in third at 13.3 seconds back as Team Russia placed all four of its athletes in the top five.

The USA’s Wyatt Gebhardt skied a strong second lap to move from 25th into 19th at 1:21.9 behind while Gareth Williams was the top Canadian skiing to 20th overall at 1:24.6 back.

Coming off of a stellar top-10 performance in the CL sprints on Monday, Bill Harmeyer (US) raced even splits to finish 29th at 2:02.6 back. Just out of the top 30 was Canuck Antoine Blais in 32nd at 2:07.8 behind the winner while Phillippe Boucher (CAN) was 35th at 2:10.3 back.

Canadian Remi Drolet finished in 50th at 2:49.1 back, and American Lance McKenney was 61st at 4:23.3 back. A total of 72 athletes started the race which was reverse-seeded like the Junior Women’s competition with the strongest skiers starting later in the pack.

Up next are the U23 10/15km FS individual start races.

Results here.