November 28, 2015 (West Yellowstone, MT) – Junior Katherine Ogden of SMST2 overcame a first-lap deficit to win the women’s 10km FR race on Day 2 of the USSA SuperTour in West Yellowstone. In the men’s 15km race, it was Brian Gregg of Team Gregg, who finally overcame a history of second-place-finishes to take the top spot.

Ogden, who started 15 seconds behind Chelsea Holmes (APU), said that she didn’t mean to start slow. “It was sweet to be even within 10 seconds of her [Holmes],” said the US Ski Team rookie. “She [Holmes] has really good technique.” Ogden credited skiing with Holmes and the other APU and USST women at a recent USST training camp in Park City with her success today.

Holmes, who finished fourth in yesterday’s 1.2km sprint FR, said that the hard effort yesterday didn’t phase her. “Honestly I would have been tired whether or not I had raced yesterday,” she said, “If you’re not tired during the race you’re not going hard enough…or you’re lying.” In the end, Ogden finished only two seconds ahead of Holmes.

Emilie Cedervaern of University of New Mexico finished third, 35 seconds behind Ogden. Jenny Bender, yesterday’s sprint winner, finished a surprising 4th. “I’m finally as fit as I was in 2011,” said Bender, who partially credited being able to ski behind Holmes during the last few kilometers.

Gregg said he knew his race was going well in the first kilometer when he was even with his training partner Matt Liebsch, who ended up in second. Scott Patterson of APUNSC finished third for his first West Yellowstone podium.

“I like to work into the race while Matt likes to go out hard,” said Gregg, who has been on the podium three times in West Yellowstone but has never won. He credited his result to bumping up his training volume by 100 hours. “I was inspired by Caitlin’s performance in Falun,” he said, referring to his wife’s Nordic World Championships bronze medal last season in Falun, Sweden.

Liebsch, who started in the early B seed said that he had been falling off while doing intervals with Gregg earlier in the week, but credited his new skis with keeping him in the mix. “My skis were super good. I’ve got new carbon Salomon S Lab skis from the World Cup batch. You get on it and it just keeps accelerating,” he commented.

After keeping last year’s racing to a minimum, Liebsch said that having Gregg nearby in Minneapolis has helped keep him motivated over the summer. Along with Gregg he added that Zach Ketterson, a top junior skier, has also been doing intervals with him to stay in shape.

Full results here.