November 18, 2012 (Muonio, Finland) – USST skier Liz Stephen took aim and fired straight for the top spot on the podium in the women’s 10km FR as she challenged Polish queen Justyna Kowalczyk to finish only 4.5s behind to claim her first FIS podium in Europe and the USA’s first podium of the season in a very tight race.

Stephen held off Russia’s Yulia Tchekaleva who grabbed third nipping Finland’s Riitta-Liisa Roponen in fourth to claim her best-ever European result against a tough international field.

The American women were clearly on form to make their mark as Holly Brooks placed 7th and Jessie Diggins claimed 9th putting three US women in the top 10.

In the men’s 15km FR it was Noah Hoffman leading the American men in 13th with Kris Freeman in 14th as Sylvan Ellefson made the points placing 29th. Finland’s Matti Heikkinen took the win over Lukas Bauer (CZE) in second with Jens Filbrich (GER) in third.

Results

Women

1. Justyna Kowalczyck (POL)  00:26:21,47
2. Liz Stephen (USA) 00:26:25,93
3. Yulia Tchekaleva (RUS) 00:26:27,06

7. Holly Brooks (USA) 00:26:47,67
9. Jessie Diggins (USA) 00:26:55,37

Men

1. Matti Heikkinen (FIN) 00:34:40,54
2. Lukas Bauer (CZE) 00:34:50,40
3. Jens Filbrich (GER) 00:35:09,06

13. Noah Hoffman (USA) 00:35:59,19
14. Kris Freeman (USA) 00:35:59,66
29. Sylvan Ellefson (USA) 00:36:24,21
53. Simeon Hamilton (USA) 00:37:08,52
77. Andy Newell (USA) 00:37:50,14   

Full results HERE.