Two Alaskans earned national titles at the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships in Anchorage over the weekend. It’s the first time the city has hosted the national championships since 2018.
University of Alaska Fairbanks senior Kendall Kramer won the women’s 20K classic race in 58:17.2 at Kincaid Park, narrowly beating Erica Laven of Sweden, who skis for the University of Utah, by 2.4 seconds. Kramer is on the U.S. ski team’s development squad, also called the D team.
After winning that race, she told Alaska-grown Olympic gold medalist and executive director of the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, Kikkan Randall, that the win was a surprise.
“I definitely was not predicting this, and I was kind of counting myself out today,” Kramer said. “Once I realized going into the last lap that I could have my first national championship and not settle for second, even though that would have been good, then I just tried for it. So that's awesome.”
Anchorage’s Luke Jager also earned a medal Sunday after finishing third overall in the men’s 20K race in 50:59.2. He was outpaced by Andreas Kirkeng of Norway, who skis for the University of Denver, and John Steel Hagenbuch of Idaho, who races for Dartmouth.
Competitors from other countries are ineligible for U.S. medals, bumping Steel Hagenbuch to gold and Jager to silver.
Jager’s teammate, Michael Earnhart of Anchorage finished 6th in 51:11.5 in the 20K race. Both Jager and Earnhart are on the U.S. cross country B team.
Jager started the championship strong on Thursday, placing fourth in the 10K individual race in 21:39.4. It was the fastest time by an Alaskan for the race by 24.4 seconds. In the classic sprint on Saturday, Jager finished as the first American in 2:56.23.
The national championship finishes tomorrow with a freestyle sprint race.
