March 12, 2013 (Fairbanks, Alaska) – Hannah Boyer and Logan Hanneman got to experience something rare and special on Tuesday: a clinching anchor leg on their home trails for a national championship.

Boyer, a Fairbanks native now skiing at Northern Michigan University, and Hanneman, who competes across town for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, each helped Team Alaska win gold in the Older Junior divisions of the 3X3-kilometer classic sprint at Birch Hill Recreation Area.

And they did so in front of family and friends on the trails they’ve been skiing since they were kids. “It was pretty awesome,” Boyer said.

Teammates Celia Haering and Stephanie Kirk made Boyer’s job easier by springing her to a 37-second lead over the nearest OJ team, though there were closer J1 squads in pursuit and the Norwegian guest J1 team ahead.

“Normally I don’t have a big gap like that,” Boyer said, adding that she nevertheless felt a bit of pressure to hold the advantage. And being ahead isn’t exactly a cakewalk. “It’s definitely more challenging when you can’t tell what’s going on behind,” Boyer said. Boyer wound up 1:16 ahead of runner-up Intermountain. Rocky Mountain edged Alaska #3 for the bronze medal.

The boys race was much closer, with Alaska’s Forrest Mahlen, Vanya Rybkin and Hanneman topping Team Midwest by almost 13 seconds in 28:00.6. Midwest anchor Ben Saxton actually skied 18 seconds faster than Hanneman but inherited too large of a deficit to catch him.

“We wanted to give (Hanneman) as much leeway as possible on that third leg,” said Mahlen, adding that Hanneman wasn’t on fresh legs after competing at the recent NCAA Skiing Championships.

Alaska also had extra motivation to topple the Norwegian J1 guest squad. “We definitely wanted to beat the Norwegians. They kind of showed us up yesterday,” said Mahlen, who participated in the Norwegian Junior Championships last month.

Alaska accomplished that mission as Norway finished in 28:13.1. But Saxton, the Midwest anchor, left disappointed as he was out-lunged by Norwegian anchor Mattis Stenshagen by .1 seconds. Stenshagen came from behind, changed lanes in the final 10 meters and nipped Saxton in a photo finish.

“I put a hurt into him on that last uphill,” said Saxton, who also made the trip to Norwegian Juniors and got to know Stenshagen there. “(But) I let up on the homestretch. I thought I had a bigger lead. … That’s a lesson I’m not going to forget.”

Intermountain Wins Close J1 Girls Relay – Rocky Mountain Boys Prevail

Often relay races come down to a drag race on the homestretch. Not on Tuesday, however, at the U.S. Cross Country Junior Nationals at Birch Hill Recreation Area.

Of the six 3X3-kilometer classic relays contested for national championships — two each in the Junior 1, J2 and Older Junior divisions — only two were decided by less than 30 seconds and only one was up for grabs on the final straightaway.

That race was the girls Junior 1 event, in which Intermountain edged Midwest by 3.7 seconds and Alaska by 4 seconds.

IM anchor Annika Miller, of McCall, Idaho, passed Nicole Bathe of Midwest shortly after reaching the top of the grueling Sidewinder climb with just over a kilometer remaining.

“That hurt,” Miller said of the long, gradual climb. Then she held off Bathe and a hard-charging Marion Woods of Alaska. Miller hung on after looking back to check on her pursuers’ whereabouts. “The uphill finish was just a killer,” Miller said.

Intermountain won gold in 34:11.5 while Midwest edged Alaska by .3 seconds in 34:15.2. Alaska rallied to reach the podium after finishing the first of three legs in 14th place.

Despite their younger age, the J1 girls proved much more competitive than their OJ counterparts, as remarkably eight of the top nine teams came from the J1 division. Both groups raced at the same time but results were then separated by division.

Topping all squads was the Norwegian J1 trio of Lotta Weng, Tiril Weng and Lisa Kvamme with a superlative time of 33:07.8. Norway, however, is entered in the guest class and not eligible for placement on the U.S. podium. But the Norwegian girls again showed they are in a class of their own by almost immediately leaving the rest of the field behind.

The boys J1 race featured a similar situation in that the top American team, Rocky Mountain, was chasing squads from Norway and the Older Junior division.

Rocky Mountain — with Keegan Swirbul, Evan Weinman and Cal Deline — handled the domestic J1 competition for gold in 28:42.  “My teammates crushed it. I couldn’t have been handed off in a better spot,” said Deline, who was tagged having a huge lead on New England and just a half-second deficit to Norway’s J1 guest team.

Deline, wearing a hat with a Swedish flag that he traded for recently in Europe, attempted to catch a ride with Norway’s anchor Mattis Stenshagen. “It was an opportunity to try and hang on, but he was going too fast for me,” Deline said.

Norway was the first J1 team across the line in 28:13. New England placed second among U.S. teams in 29:21 and Alaska earned bronze in 29:35.

Wednesday is a day reserved for training and rest. The championships resume Thursday at 11:45 a.m. with 1.25-kilometer freestyle sprints.

Alaska and New England Dominate J2 Relays
Not even a navigational gaffe could derail the New England J2 girls in Tuesday’s 3X3k classic relay at the U.S. Cross Country Junior Nationals.

Katharine Ogden, the lead skier for New England, lost the substantial lead she’d gained on Rocky Mountain’s Hailey Swirbul after she accidentally skied into the finish lane instead of the lap lane — despite large signs that directed skiers — as she approached the end of the first leg. Ogden was thus forced to backtrack out of the finish lane and into the correct exchange lane.

Instead of having a lead of perhaps 10 seconds, New England’s second skier, Leah Brams, inherited a 6-second deficit to Rocky Mountain. It wasn’t the first time Ogden made the error. “For the last qualifier me and Julie (Kern) and Katharine all went the wrong way,” Brams said. “We were like ‘It’s never happening again.’”

But it happened again on another sunny day with temperatures in the teens at the Jim Whisenhant Trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area. The mistake added a little drama but wasn’t worth fretting about for New England.

“I wasn’t that worried,” Brams said. “I was a little nervous, but I ski better when I have someone to pace off.” Brams proceeded to build a nearly insurmountable 26-second lead by outpacing RM’s Jordan Floyd.

New England anchor Kern then coasted home to secure the national championship in 34 minutes, 1 second. The dominant victory was no surprise — Ogden, Kern and Brams swept the J2 podium in the 5K freestyle on Monday.

Alaska anchor Lydia Blanchett, with the fastest third leg, rallied to win her team the silver-medal in 34:46 while Rocky Mountain slipped to third in 35:11.

The boys J2 race also played out as expected, with Alaska’s Jake Bassett, Tristan Sayre and Max Donaldson leading from start to finish. “Yesterday we all got top four so we knew we were the favorite (team),” Sayre said.

Bassett skied the scramble leg and tagged to Sayre with a 4.2-second lead over Intermountain’s Logan Diekmann. Sayre then busted the race open with the fastest second-leg to increase the gap to 18 seconds. “I was pretty frantic at the start … then I relaxed because that’s what everyone was telling me to do,” Sayre said.

Sayre, from Fairbanks, made up some of his ground on the seemingly interminable “Sidewinder” hill, the second of two major climbs on the 3.3-kilometer course.

Donaldson, Monday’s runaway winner, had the honor of clinching the gold medal on his hometown trails. While Donaldson was able to ski without anyone threatening him, he would have welcomed more pressure. “It would have been nice to ski behind someone and maybe pass them in the end,” Donaldson said.

Intermountain held on for second place in 30:30 while New England won bronze in 30:41.

Full results by class HERE.
Read more on the championships HERE.
Videos by Kirk Nichols HERE.