January 5, 2009 (Anchorage, AK) – Temperatures warmed up enough today to hold the scheduled 5km/10km skate race at the 2009 US Nordic Ski Championships. Originally scheduled to be 10km/15km the courses were shortened to 5km/10km to take advantage of the predicted temperature window for Monday afternoon. Caitlin Compton of (CXC Elite) has won the women’s 5km skate race with a 3.5 second margin over (APU/USST) member Kikkan Randall. In third was Liz Stephen (Burke/USST) just 8.3 second back. Compton completed the 5km course in 14:48.3. “The snow was surprisingly fast for how cold it has been,” say Randall. “Although the steep climbs were still slow.”

Coming into the 5km skate race Compton was the defending champion. “The whole week has been a little suspenseful with everything changing. Then I realized they changed it to the 5K skate and I thought it was kind of like defending my title,” Compton said. “Having the first race over now, I’m definitely happy. I’m now hoping for a good classic race because I’ve had some good skate races this year but I want to see where I am in classic,” Compton said.

Kris Freeman (USST) has shown once again he is the US distance king winning today’s men’s 10km skate race by 50.3 seconds over second Leif Zimmermann (BSF/USST). This was Freeman’s 11th National title. In third was CXC Elite team member Matt Leibsch 1:02.6 seconds off Freeman’s winning time of 24:17.2. “I was second last year so it was good to just come out and show what I could really do,” Freeman said. “At the 2K mark I was tied with a couple other guys so I started to speed it up throughout the race and the harder I went the better I felt.”

Complete results men
Complete results women

Results (brief)

Women
1. Caitlin Compton (CXC) 14:48.3
2. Kikkan Randall (APU) USST + 3.5
3. Liz Stephen (Burke) USST + 8.3
4. Laura Valaas (APU) USST + 23.4
5. Kristina Trygstad-Saari + 26.9

Men
1. Kris Freeman USST 24:17.2
2. Leif Zimmermann (BSF) USST +50.3
3. Matthew Liebsch (CXC) + 1:02.6
4. Vegard Kjoelhamar (Univ. Of Colo) + 1:24.7
5. James Southam (APU) + 1:31.5