March 25, 2018 (Fairbanks, Alaska) – Stratton Mountain bided their time in the Mixed Relay 4x5km and when the dust settled once again topped the podium to defend their title over APU 1 in second with Craftsbury Green Racing Project 1 landing third on the podium.

Simi Hamilton, Sophie Caldwell, Patrick Caldwell, and Jessie Diggins marked their APU-1 rivals and kept them in check as Erik Bjornsen, Sadie Bjornsen, Scott Patterson and Kikkan Randall looked strong. Adam Martin, Ida Sargent, Alex Howe and Caitlin Patterson from Craftsbury challenged early on but settled for third.

Hamilton, Erik Bjornsen and Martin were the front runners on the opening leg and all tagged off together with APU-1 having a slight edge.

Then Sadie Bjornsen dropped Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent (Craftsbury Green) and garnered a 7-second lead as she tagged Patterson for leg three.

Patrick Caldwell battled against Scott Patterson on the third leg and clawed back some time as APU-1 anchor, Randall, enjoyed a 4-second lead but not for long as Diggins soon joined her.

But Randall eould not contain her Olympic gold partner as Diggins raced to victory for Stratton once again with Randall taking second and Caitlin Patterson taking third.

“We knew that APU and Craftbury were going to be tough,” said Sophie Caldwell. “Our goal was to keep it as close as possible for Jessie because we knew we had a really strong anchor leg. We are psyched.”

“We knew it was going to be tough going against Stratton today based on how they were skiing all week and we knew it would be key getting a little time going into that last leg,” said Randall. “Scott gave us the gap and I was hopeful going into the last lap. I tried to put the pressure on, but Jessie caught me at about 2.5k. She had a bit more and pulled away to take the win. The team relay is such a great event and having three clubs on the podium just shows the depth of the team.”

Results here.