December 16, 2007 (Soldier Hollow, Utah) – U.S. B Team skiers Morgan Arritola, Tax Mannix and Laura Valaas swept the women’s podium Sunday in a 10 km freestyle race at Soldier Hollow during the annual USSA Cross Country SuperTour. Russian Ivan Babikov, who hopes to gain Canadian citizenship, was the men’s 15 km winner.

Arritola covered the two-lap route in 29:55.7 with Mannix four seconds back. Making for a tight podium was Laura Valaas, who finished in 30:03.6, just 7.9 seconds out. Fifty-two women raced on the 2002 Olympic trails.

“It was a great atmosphere. These races aren’t SoHo’s first rodeo and they just run things so smoothly,” U.S. Coach Pat Casey said. “The buzz of the day, especially with the APU [Alaska Pacific University] Nordic group was Kikkan,” a reference to Kikkan Randall with the historic first U.S. woman’s World Cup victory in Russia, which was in the middle of the night, SoHo time.

“Taz and Laura train with Kikkan and the APU skiers, so perhaps they were all a little more amped and that might have helped their racing,” he said. Fourth place went to another APU skier, Kate Arduser, who finished in 30:08.2.

It was a bit of redemption for Valaas, the defending SuperTour sprint champion who was unhorsed Saturday in a classic technique sprint, finishing third behind University of Utah student Kjersti Boe, a Norwegian, and veteran Karin Strandberg, a native Swede. Coincidentally, Arritola and Mannix skipped Saturday’s sprint to better prepare for the 10 km.

In the men’s race, Babikov won in 37:50.1 with Garrott Kuzzy second (38:19.2). U.S. B Team racer Leif Zimmermann, back after being slowed for the previous 10 days with a cold, finished third in the field of 80 with a time of 38:27.9.

The next SuperTour races will be the U.S. Championships, which begin New Year’s Day at Michigan Tech in Houghton, Michigan. SuperTour points are doubled for the four short-distance nationals races.

Full results.