SOLDIER HOLLOW NORDIC CENTER — Will Koch knows how to win a skate sprint qualifier at Soldier Hollow. Two years ago, the then-19-year-old sophomore at the University of Colorado turned heads when he won the qual at 2022 U.S. Nationals, ahead of JC Schoonmaker in second and Logan Diekmann in third.
Two years later, Koch did it again. Going out as the 13th starter on a day that saw 237 (!) men toe the line, Koch covered the 1.6-kilometer course in 3:12.49 to set the morning’s fastest time as the second day of 2024 U.S. National Cross-Country Championships kicked off. The Buffs flashed their strength in a discipline seldom contested at the collegiate level, with Koch’s Colorado teammates Hugo Hinckfuss and Johannes Lønnestad Flaaten finishing second and third.
Hinckfuss is a full nine inches taller than Koch, according to their listed biographical information on the Colorado ski team website. There’s a lot of different ways to the top in skiing.
The BSF Pro Team showed that it is also a force to be reckoned with in men’s sprinting, as Logan Diekmann and Graham Houtsma, fourth and fifth overall, were the next-fastest Americans this morning. While there is no physical ceremony for the “top three Americans in the qualifier podium,” this ranking is of more than academic interest when it comes to future team selection, so congrats to Koch, Diekmann, and Houtsma.
On the women’s side, Haley Brewster of the U.S. Ski Team and the University of Vermont set the pace in 3:49.33. Second overall was Karianne Olsvik Dengerud of the University of Utah. Dengerud is from Norway; the next two finishers, Lucinda Anderson of the University of New Hampshire and Erin Bianco of BSF, are your top three Americans.
Congrats to Bridger Ski Foundation for claiming three of the top six domestic qualifying times today across both genders.
Qualifying performance this week is of outsized importance when it comes to team selection for the Canmore and Minneapolis World Cups, the obvious goal of most top domestic skiers this season. USSS looks to an athlete’s two best performances in a single discipline, sprint or distance, when calculating World Cup selections on the basis of domestic performance (and it looks to qualification-round performance only for purposes of this math, I should add).
On the one hand, the selection window for this math problem stretches all the way back to the opening week of SuperTour racing in Anchorage, i.e., the two sprints, and sprint quals, held there are absolutely valid for selection. On the other hand, first place in a “normal” SuperTour sprint qual is worth 30 points, while first place at U.S. Nationals is worth 45 points. Second in Anchorage last month was worth 25 points; here it is worth 35 points. So we’ll have to run the math to know for sure, but TLDR two very good performances here are likely going to be worth more than two outright winning performances in the December SuperTours. Although it also depends on who gets them, and if the same athlete has multiple strong races or not…
Just to make the math even easier, I should add that, while Sunday’s classic sprint is a SuperTour rather than a national championship in terms of prize money and prestige, the SuperTour classic sprint qual is treated the same as today’s national championship skate sprint qual for purposes of assigning bonus points. Which makes sense, right (I’m just editorializing here now sorry); it’s the same athletes at the same venue in the same week.
All of which is to say that Koch and Brewster currently have the inside track for domestic World Cup starts, but also none of this will be known for sure till after Sunday morning.
Back to Soldier Hollow in the present now, heats start for the senior men at 12:15 p.m., and for the senior women at 12:45 p.m. Junior heats start at 2:25 p.m.
Results and heat start lists are linked below. Athletes highlighted in green in the qual results qualified for the senior/open heats. Athletes highlighted in orange qualified for the junior heats.
Results: qual | heat start lists
— Gavin Kentch
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