There’s winning a sprint qual, and then there’s going full Klæbo on the field. Luke Jager (USST/APU) did the latter Sunday morning at 2024 U.S. National Cross-Country Championships, setting the fastest time in the classic sprint qual. By 5.81 seconds.
Florian Knopf, of the University of Denver, was in turn an additional 5.99 seconds up on third in the qual, Walker Hall (USST/Utah). There was more time between first and third today than there was between third and 34th.
Also of note at the top of the results sheet, Murphy Kimball (Alaska Winter Stars) showed that his qual win in last month’s Anchorage SuperTour classic sprint was no fluke, as he was fifth today. Peter Hinds (University of Alaska Anchorage) also skied way above his bib number, finishing seventh in the qual. I promise I’m not just picking out the Alaskans here because I know them; I do think that these are objectively among the more notable performances.
There was less separation at the top of the women’s field, where Alayna Sonnesyn (SMS) led the way in 4:38.04. The second-fastest time in the qual went to Renae Anderson (APU, +2.35), while third was this week’s breakout star, Haley Brewster (USST/Vermont, +2.97). Anderson has previously finished as high as fifth in a SuperTour classic sprint qual, though today’s second comes against a notably deeper field.
The Soho sprint course is a full 1.6 kilometers long. And it is at altitude. And there was some fresh snow this morning, which apparently is noteworthy in Utah this winter. Put all that together, and times were not fast out there.
Jager and Knopf were the only athletes to go under 4 minutes for the men. A 4:10.71 made the open heats for the men, and a 4:33 made the junior heats. On the women’s side, Sonnesyn led the way with her time of 4:38.04. Thirtieth in the women’s qual was a shade under 5 minutes, at 4:58.26. A time slightly over 5:30 made the junior heats. Expect some very tired athletes after up to three more rounds of this.
As I explained at length on skate sprint day, performance in the qualifier is of more than academic interest when it comes to team selection for things like domestic World Cup starts. You can find out more about that in the second half of this article from earlier this week:
Results are below. In the first link, athletes highlighted in green made the open heats; athletes highlighted in orange made the junior heats. The second link shows the heat schedule and participants.
Results: qual | heat sheets
— Gavin Kentch
So far as I can tell I am the only media outlet interviewing athletes at this year’s national championships. This coverage is happening only because I paid my way to travel down here from Alaska for a week-plus reporting trip. If you would like to support these efforts, you can find my GoFundMe here. (This is still last year’s fundraiser, sorry, because I’ve been busy; the money all goes to the same place.) Thank you for your consideration, and thanks for reading.
