By Gavin Kentch
Our coverage of 2025 U.S. Nationals is supported by The Hoarding Marmot, Alaska’s premier technical outdoor consignment shop. Whether you’re racing, spectating, just like quality used gear, or need to rent skis or other outdoor gear, stop by The Hoarding Marmot while you’re in town. I appreciate their financial support of the site.
KINCAID PARK, Anchorage, Alaska — I try to keep the Alaska homerism reasonably tamped down on this site, but sometimes events on the ground leave me with no choice. So: Let’s talk about Alaska for a moment.
In Saturday’s classic sprint, the second day of racing at 2025 U.S. National Alaska Cross-Country Championships, on a day of quintessential Anchorage weather, three Anchorage boys swept the domestic podium.
The second athlete across the line, and first Alaskan, was Luke Jager. Jager grew up in Anchorage, where he skied for West Anchorage High School. He attended college Outside, but now skis full-time for Alaska Pacific University. The third athlete in, and second Alaskan, was Michael Earnhart. Earnhart grew up in Eagle River, a culturally and geographically separate exurb that is nonetheless part of the Municipality of Anchorage, and skis full-time for Alaska Pacific University. The fifth athlete in, and third Alaskan, was Murphy Kimball. Kimball grew up in Anchorage; he skied for West Anchorage High School, where both his parents teach. He now attends college in Anchorage, where he skis for the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Okay, I think I can tone it down from here, but it has to be said that it was a pretty strong day for the home crowd. Of Alaskans. Racing at home. Because they were from Alaska, see.
Sorry. I think I’m done now. Here’s your straight news lede: Andreas Kirkeng, a Norwegian skiing for the University of Denver who has long tormented this country’s top domestic athletes on the race course while being a very nice guy off of it, topped a U.S. Nationals podium once again, winning the classic sprint here on a blustery day in Anchorage. It was Kirkeng’s sixth career podium finish at U.S. Nationals, including five wins; John Steel Hagenbuch besting him for first on Thursday was historically significant.
Second place, 0.44 seconds back, went to Luke Jager (APU/USST), who led into the finishing stretch but was unable to hold off the lanky Norwegian over the false flat uphill of the finish lanes, the longest 120 meters in the park. Third (+1.94) went to Michael Earnhart, also APU/USST. It was Jager’s third consecutive national title in the event, and Earnhart’s second career silver-medal finish at U.S. Nationals.
The men’s final was rounded out by Florian Knopf, a German skiing with Kirkeng at Denver, in fourth; Murphy Kimball (UAA/USST) in fifth; and Jack Christner of Middlebury in sixth. It was the young Kimball’s first time on a domestic national championship podium.
The heats were largely chalk throughout the day; of the twelve athletes in the semifinals, all but two of them had posted one of the morning’s top 11 fastest times in the qual.
By far the largest surprise in the heats occurred when the clock was not even running. Erling Bjørnstad of UAA, who had qualified in second and had to be considered a favorite on the day, false started at the start of the second semifinal. The racers returned to the line… re-set… poised for the gun… and Bjørnstad false started again. Each violation accrued a yellow card; the second yellow card presumptively led to Bjørnstad’s disqualification; the race jury immediately convened and assessed this sanction; the heat went off moments later with just five starters.
Knopf won that heat, with Christner second. Both lucky losers came from the first semifinal, aka the Besh Cup heat (Besh Cups are the Alaska JNQ series). While Kirkeng of Lier, Norway, was second there, Jager (APU) was first, Kimball (UAA) was third, Earnhart (APU) was fourth, Garrett Butts (APU) was fifth, and Cole Flowers (University of Alaska Fairbanks) was sixth. Butts, originally from Colorado, is an import; the four others are all Anchorage kids. Yes, Alaska high school racing is a bloodsport.
Onto the final. The Kincaid sprint course, which you can read about at shall we say some length here, is great for racing, but maybe not quite so great for spectating. (No snark at all, I think it’s a great course, just a lot of the action occurs out of view of spectators. Clearly worth it for the course that results.)
So let me turn things over to Kimball, who shortly after the race walked me through the final in lapidary detail:
“I had another good start; I think that’s one of my strengths. I was in second going up the first pitch; I guess it’s a doublepole section. Going out towards the Frog Pond I was in second following Luke. And then on the downhill I put in some big power over the top to get good speed going to the downhill.
“I can’t say what happened behind me, but I was in second and I was drafting Luke super close. I think our tips and tails touched going on the corner and I passed him. So I was in first at the bottom of the Frog Pond [the flat stretch of the course after the first downhill and approaching the big climb] in the tuck.
“And then I was in the second track. Luke was in the first. He has the inside lane. He goes even with me and pulls ahead.
“Then we’re going into the first pitch of Gong Hill. And I stayed in second, and I could feel two people on my sides. I’m not entirely sure who it was, but then we hit where the tracks kind of break — or not break, but get scrubbed.
“And then we go onto the corner [at the halfway mark of the main climb up Gong Hill, approaching Kikkan’s Kick]. Then it’s Luke right in front of me. I’m in second, and there’s one person on my left and right.
“And then going around that corner, I had one slip of the ski and my momentum got halted from that. My first slip all day, because I’ve had such amazing skis today. Thanks to Trond and I think Jan, they worked together today. [Trond Flagstad at UAA and Jan Buron at Alaska Winter Stars] And so then I almost panicked, but I’ve been trying to stay calm and focused and present on the heat that I’m in.
“And then two guys go by me. And then there must have been a third going by me too at that point, because I kind of looked down and slipped once. ‘Stay calm,’ I was just thinking. ‘It hurts. Final, hardest part of the climb; I just need to stay calm.’
“I slipped maybe one other time because I was just trying to get my feet going. And I got it back. And then — so then we get over the hill where it pitches up a little bit [this is still approaching the top of Gong Hill]. And then there’s the final uphill to the top; I’m out of the tracks running.
“And in my mind it just clicked: ‘I’m in third American right now,’ because we had talked about this before the start. ‘There’s one dude behind me who’s also American.’ I just go, ‘Stay ahead of this guy.’ That just clicked and then it focused me immediately.
“And then everything over the top of the hill and the downhill, because that’s the crucial part of the course, is pushing on this big downhill. And Trond was on the downhill.
“And I was just thinking, ‘just push everything to the line.’ My body kind of locked up with 50 meters to go in the finish. And I was just trying to go. And I turned around to look, and I was ahead of the other American.”
“And then I was just across the line and I lay down. It was just super hard.”
And there you have it. Every other athlete whom I interview when I can’t see their race, please have an eidetic memory like 18-year-old Kimball here tyia.
Meanwhile, here’s Jager’s take from nearer the front:
“In my quarterfinal I kind of tried a pretty mellow start and was seeing how easy it was to move later in the race from like fourth up, and it was honestly kind of a nightmare and pretty messy. I was like, Man, I feel like if I tried doing that two more times the odds of getting stuck or breaking a pole or something are really high.
“So then in my semi I was like, Okay, I’m just going to go for it and try and just stay in front and stay out of trouble. I definitely strung it out enough that it wasn’t quite as packed in the bottom of the Frog Pond, which was nice, but it also meant that Andreas came along for the ride both times so, I don’t know, you take what you can get, I guess.
“I was watching the women’s final and I saw Mariel lead over the top and then I saw the wind was just ripping and I saw Erica tucked in behind her and then just fly by her in the downhill, and I was like, Dude, I don’t know, it looks like there’s a pretty big draft there and this hill notoriously doesn’t have that big of a draft.
“So yeah, usually if you’ve got good speed and you’re out in front you can usually stay in front, but it was looking like maybe that wasn’t the way it was going. So I was considering not just going from the front, but I was like, Okay, I’m just going to do it and hope for the best. And it wasn’t quite the best but it was almost the best, so I can’t complain.”
One last word here to the ever-quotable Jager.
Is there anything you wish you had done differently, I asked, a pretty typical question for me that often draws out interesting thoughts on strategy or process goals.
“I probably would have tried to just go faster the whole time,” deadpanned Jager, “and then I think if I had come to the finish line before Andreas instead of after him, that would have been better. If I could change one thing that’s probably what I would have changed, is not actually getting passed in the finish.”
I caught up with Earnhart via email after the race, so probably take his thoughts more at face value.
“I’m happy that I trusted my ability and skied hard in the heats to come away with a nationals career best,” wrote the 22-year-old who spent the first part of this season racing in Europe. “The final went well although I was fortunate to find an advantageous lane going up gong after a slow start out of the stadium.”
Reflecting on being overseas to start the year, Earnhart stated that his World Cup experience “taught me that’s there’s still plenty of improvements to be made. Hopefully today was a step in the right direction.”
He added, “Proud to be a part of this country. The domestic field quality has been improving and we are starting to feel like a deep nation. Domestic races are not easy wins.”
Okay, back, briefly, to the local pride to close things out.
What does it say that four of the five juniors who made the men’s open heats today are Anchorage kids, I asked Kimball.
“I think it’s just knowledge of this course,” he mused. “Having knowledge of any course, whether or not it’s your hometown, is so beneficial for the race, because you’ve done it a million times and you know it’s coming. And for us at UAA, we did two hard sprint sessions on this course in the past nine days. And so I knew exactly what it feels like, and I’m prepared for that. It’s a huge advantage to be on a home course.”
Kimball noted that the venue is closer to his house than to his dorm at UAA, and so he has been enjoying spending winter break driving back to his home after training. “And then I just relax in my house, eat my food, just be in this familiar environment.” Kimball is a fan.
Final word here to Jager, at an agèd 24 somehow the elder statesman of this sprint phenom triumvirate, on what it’s like racing Anchorage folks in Anchorage:
“Mike, teammate, good friend. So seeing him in the final and just cool as a cucumber and playing his cards right and being there at the right time was awesome.
“And then Murphy, or Big Al, as we affectionately call him, super strong. He’s a young guy, and he’s really impressive. After the semifinal, I saw him laying on the ground, and I was kind of like, Ooh, hope he’s got the legs for the final. But he did. He was strong; he was fighting the whole way. So he’s definitely the next big thing; so excited to see what he can do.”
Racing continues here tomorrow with mass start classic races, 20km for open racers and 10km for U20 and below. There are 98 men entered in the 20km and 125 across the two flights of the 10km; you can find start lists here.
Results: qual | heats | final results (unofficial)
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in years one and two of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year three of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, last season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
