By Gavin Kentch
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KINCAID PARK, Anchorage — On a very Alaskan day at Kincaid Park, the venerable venue at the western edge of the state’s largest city, the Alaskans showed up.
Winds gusted to 35 miles per hour during the heats of the classic sprint. Planes coming into the nearby airport — where an official weather station clocked sustained wind speeds of 33mph, gusting to 49mph — altered their approach to descend from the south, rather than the standard flight path from the west that would see them buffeted by a strong crosswind. Murphy Kimball, who qualified fourth in this event on this course at U.S. Nationals earlier this year, was an atypical 59th in the qual, after being charged by a moose midway through his lap.
And on the results sheet, Erling Bjørnstad of the University of Alaska Anchorage led the way, winning the final in 2:50.61 on a day when the wind scoured the snow and made for fast times. He was followed by three APU skiers who all grew up here (“here” like Alaska here; I know that Ari is from Fairbanks). Michael Earnhart (high school: Chugiak) was second, Ari Endestad (West Valley) was third, and Hunter Wonders (South Anchorage) was fourth. Fifth and sixth in the final went to Reid Goble and Graham Houtsma, both of BSF.
I think that there was some contact among the back half of the field in the final, but I didn’t talk to anyone who saw it directly so I am not going to speculate further as to what occurred. One of the final finishers expressed some very Frida Karlsson–esque language as he crossed the line, albeit in English rather than in Swedish. There were some strong feelings out there today.
Also strong today was Bjørnstad, who had the fastest mark in the qualification round with his 2:54.46. Second and third overall were John Schwinghamer (Craftsbury) and Adam Witkowski (Team Birkie). Fifth overall, and the third-fastest American, was Earnhart. While it is performances in the sprint quals at U.S. Nationals in January that really matter for Olympic qualification, points are nonetheless accrued for performances in these quals, too. (You can find that USSS spreadsheet here; give them a day or two to get it filled in. I’m writing this at 10 p.m. Saturday; long days here for all of us.)
But it is also nice to win races (see video of men’s final above; enjoy this handheld iPhone video while you can, before I go to the Olympics and video sharing is verboten, because broadcast $$$). “I felt really good today,” said Bjørnstad afterwards. “It’s the first time I’ve ever won a big race like this, so it was really cool.”
Bjørnstad, who hails from Alta, Norway, is in his second year at UAA. He has raced here before, and advises that he “really likes this course.”
“It’s very — especially today, with the conditions — super fast,” he explained, “and then I like to just run up the hill.” He identified the 24-meter B-Climb culminating at the 800-meter mark of the 1.4-kilometer course as the “deciding part” of the race. “That’s where I felt I had the edge over the other guys,” Bjørnstad recounted.
Earnhart’s experience, from slightly farther back in the pack, was of a piece.
“We went kind an honest pace from the start,” he recounted. “But then as soon as we hit the main uphill on Gong [Hill], Erling put it down. I was happy with that. I think my strength is the running, so I wanted to run hard there too. But it turns out Erling is much better at running than I am.”
“He had a pretty good gap on me there,” Earnhart said of the Norwegian. “I think he maybe went with a little more kick. I went with a little more glide today, so I made up some ground on the downhill, but too little, too late. So I ended up in second.”
Was Earnhart happy with the race nonetheless?
“Oh, definitely,” said the 23-year-old APU skier. “Sprint days — there’s so many opportunities for things to go wrong. You could run into a moose in the qualifier. You could, you know, fall in a quarter or a semi, stick a pole between your legs. There’s a lot of ways for things to go wrong. So top American, second overall, [completely inaudible due to wind but I’m sure he said he was pleased].”
And speaking of the wind, it definitely left its mark on the course today, scouring the skate deck and filling the tracks with cold, dry, ball bearings–like snow.
“The tracks were super slow, full of snow,” Earnhart recounted. “You know, warming up, I thought, Oh man, it’s fast outside the tracks, but I’m gonna keep warming up in the tracks, I don’t want anyone else to know this. But you know, we all knew that; we were all outside the tracks. There was no secret there. So it was kind of just a little different race, being a little careful not to skate too much around those turns with the tracks and all that” (because a turn with extant tracks is not a turning zone as a term of art. I don’t see any jury decisions on the official results — and I believe that the Zone4 format allows for same — so it appears that the field exercised due prudence out there.)
Behind Earnhart, but not far behind, APU teammate Ari Endestad was thrilled with third place on the day.
“It was awesome,” said Endestad, 24, of his race. “I mean, I came in today thinking, I just better qualify. Coming after last year at Nationals, I didn’t even qualify in this race. I’ve struggled with this course my whole life; I’ve done it every year at Besh Cups [the Alaska JNQ series]. Today I feel like I found my rhythm, especially on the hill, and was able to qualify eighth and move up to the heats. I was really excited with how it went.”
So what was different this time?
“Good summer training,” guessed the Fairbanksan. “Maybe some of that glacier sprint, our special Friday workout where me and Buster [Richardson] did a lot of running on skis. Because I just felt like it all came together today. APU had some nice boards; I had some kick, and I just tried to make it work. It’s unbelievable to be on the podium today; I can’t imagine this one. … Very psyched.”
Final word to Endestad on conditions today, following a, shall we say, meteorologically dramatic last several days in Anchorage:
“It’s a little bit icy, but it wasn’t too bad. It could have been way worse, as you know; two days ago, we had a lot of rain. But honestly, very well done by NSAA [Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage] to make a good course out of some less than ideal conditions.”
Racing continues tomorrow with an interval-start 10km skate. I put full details from my unofficial course preview at the close of the women’s race article. And also told everyone else in town to just go to Hillside, which apparently falls outside the aegis of the Kincaid wind tunnel hellhole.
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