By Gavin Kentch
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KINCAID PARK, Anchorage — On a blustery day when the classic tracks were unclear, Hunter Wonders emerged as the clear strength of the domestic field through Period 1 of this season.
Wonders won the men’s 10-kilometer interval-start classic race here on Sunday morning, crossing the line in 24:56.6. It was the APU skier’s second win, and third top-four finish, to start the 2025/2026 SuperTour season; he won last weekend’s 13km skate, and was fourth in the classic sprint. Wonders was also first and third in last month’s Anchorage Winter Start distance races here, competitions with a near–SuperTour-level field.
Wonders’s winning time yesterday morning was slightly under 25 minutes. He had just enough left over his second 5km lap to hold off Brian Bushey of Craftsbury, who would ultimately finish 2.6 seconds back. Erling Bjørnstad, of University of Alaska Anchorage, was third, 12.4 seconds back.
The rest of the six-deep SuperTour podium saw Michael Earnhart of APU in fourth (+27.0), Zach Jayne of Utah in fifth (+28.2), and Reid Goble of BSF in sixth (+28.6). Tabor Greenberg, USST/Vermont, was the top junior on Sunday, finishing seventh overall (+30.0).
I’m going to start with Bjørnstad, who finished third, because I want to talk about course conditions on Sunday (see photo above for a visual take on same). It was windy, again, like steady winds of 20–25mph and gusts to nearly twice that windy, and the set classic tracks quickly filled with windblown snow. This was small, dry, high-friction, and slow. (Cite: The athletes basically said as much; also, I live here, and I know from Kincaid wind.) The skate deck, meanwhile, was wind-scoured, fast, and inviting.
However, this was a classic race. And turning zones were set in standard and predictable portions of the course. This left multiple areas where even conscientious athletes had an incentive to go around a corner out of the tracks, in an area that had tracks set (i.e., not a designated turning zone). Which is fine, but one has to do so carefully. Ask your nearest TD for more on these nuances.
The women raced second yesterday. Nearly a quarter of the women’s field received a reprimand, either verbal or written, for a violation of ICR 343.8 during their race. There are no such jury actions noted in the FIS results for the men’s race. As between (a) the men skiing perfectly within the rules and (b) the men skiing roughly like the women but the race jury not fully appreciating the scope of the problem during the first race of the day, I… don’t think it was the former.
(Since members of the race jury will likely read this: nothing personal, at all, just calling it like I see it.)
Bjørnstad, a sophomore at UAA, did not think so, either.
“Part of the course had windblown tracks,” he observed, “and if I’m totally honest, I think today I saw a lot of skating. And I think we should have seen some yellow cards and some disqualifications today. So that’s one thing I’m not super happy about. So I hope in the next races we can have people watching and make sure it’s a fair race for everyone.”
“I felt strong today,” Bjørnstad added of his race. “I’m very happy with it.”
As for conditions, Bjørnstad said that the wind was the single most noticeable thing out there, but that conditions on the ground were “firm and fast today. So I think that’s good for me. I had a really good kick and firm conditions, so it was a fast day.”
Snow conditions on the course were, shall we say, variable; the host club, Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, has performed heroically over the past week-plus to expand manmade snow coverage from the core of the distance course out to its further reaches, but the long A-Climb in the opening kilometer remained largely natural snow. Which, after the past few weeks of Anchorage weather, means relatively icy, somewhat dirty natural snow.
“Elliott’s Climb was very different snow than the other uphills,” noted Bjørnstad of this section of the course. “So that’s where you had to get the to work in all the uphills. So I think that was key.”
“NSAA did an amazing job with how much snow we have,” echoed Wonders, the winner on Sunday. “I was shocked that they actually have a track, two tracks, set up Elliott’s. Kind of impressive. I don’t know how they do it. And they’re not too dirty. You know, there’s some dirty spots out there; you gotta watch it and try not to ski through the dirt as much. That’ll slow down your skis. But the trails were shockingly good.”
Wonders did take the win yesterday, but Bushey made it close: While Wonders put 17.3 seconds into the Craftsbury skier over lap one, Bushey closed 14.7 seconds faster than Wonders over lap two. 17 is obviously greater than 14, so Wonders had just enough left in the tank to hold on for the win by 2.6 seconds. But it was close.
“I’ve been taking it out hot this year,” mused Wonders of his race strategy on Sunday. “I feel like having good splits on the first lap gives you something to fight for in the second half, and it’s been paying off so far this season. I’m just trying to take it out hot and see how long I can hold it. And one of these days, I bet it will bite me in the butt, but so far it’s been working.”
“I had a big slowdown in the last 3km especially,” Wonders candidly stated. “I had a couple of guys I was skiing with and I made a surge trying to get them off. And that just I think blew me up too early, and they were able to hang with me. And so then I was just trying to ski with them and stay a little bit more relaxed until the finishing stretch. But I’m happy with the day.”
So what do you tell yourself in that moment, I asked, when you’ve been getting great splits for 7km and then all of a sudden things start going backwards.
“Just gotta put my head down and do what I can do,” Wonders said. “It’s been a fun season so far. And we’re out here for fun, but we’re also out here to win. So I just kind of remind myself of that. I’m also trying to keep my arms moving, and let that kind of drive the body and keep the tempo a little higher. And just enjoy it while I’m doing it.”
Finally, I had to ask Wonders about the current strength of American men’s skiing. In late 2018, Gus Schumacher told me for a profile, “I think the goal [for the American men] obviously, sort of unspoken, but I would like to see us get to where the girls are. … I would like, everyone would like, us to be like the girls — they’re really good. I think it’s possible. It would be really cool, and I think it’s doable.”
Seven years later, the U.S. put two men, Vermonters Ben Ogden and Jack Young, in the sprint final on Saturday, and the American men were ranked sixth in the Nations Cup standings while the women were fifth. (For perspective, in the 2018/2019 season when I conducted that interview, while the American women ended the year ranked fourth, the men were eleventh. One spot behind Great Britain.)
“There are a lot of good skiers,” said Wonders of the current American men’s field. “And I think we’re all just feeding off of each other. You know, my teammates are pushing me, and I think we’re all seeing how often we’re showing up for training. It just makes a good, cohesive group. And I think it’s fun to be a part of the group that is making U.S. skiing climb the ranks.”
Do you mean the APU group specifically, or American skiers more broadly, I queried.
“I mean the U.S. group,” Wonders said. “I love the APU group, but we’re seeing the guys out in Vermont are kicking butt over on the World Cup, and, you know, I wanna be right there with them. I want to be fighting all my U.S. competitors as well, but it just gives me a boost in confidence that I can be right there with them.”
And speaking of Vermont, let’s hear from yesterday’s top junior man, Tabor Greenberg (he is shown above, closest to the camera, tailing Wonders in lap two). Greenberg is from Moretown, Vermont. He is currently on the ski team at the University of Vermont, which is located in Burlington, Vermont. His last name, Greenberg, can be parsed as “green + mountain,” if you take some slight liberties with the German. This evokes to me the Green Mountain State, viz., Vermont. I respect this level of state pride.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” said Greenberg of his day. “I kind of just sat on Hunter Wonders once he caught me, and tried to stay with him. Pretty windy, so it was nice because he was blocking the wind for me. But I felt pretty good. I thought my striding was pretty smooth today.”
As for growth areas on the day? “I think I could have warmed up a little better, to be honest,” Greenberg candidly noted. “Or just probably toss in a few more intensities, ’cause I felt like the start was a little cold. And then probably a few sections, I could have pushed doublepole up the hill a tiny bit more. Overall, I thought it was decent, but always things to improve on.”
Final question for Greenberg, which is sort of a softball and sort of an object lesson about how development works in this country: What’s it like to see the Vermont boys crushing on the World Cup?
“It’s awesome,” said Greenberg, his face lighting up. “I’ve known those guys a while, and seeing them out there doing well is super inspirational. I’m hoping to join them soon enough. So it definitely keeps us training and racing hard here, I think, as a nation.”
Greenberg was the top junior yesterday, in seventh, as noted above. The rest of the junior podium was Vebjorn Flagstad, of Alaska Winter Stars, in 15th, and Lucas Wilmot, of Utah, three-plus seconds back in 16th.
High-level domestic racing resumes with U.S. Nationals in early January. Nordic Insights will have boots-on-the-ground coverage from all races out of Lake Placid, as is our wont.
bonus photos of some podium skiers:
Michael Earnhart:
Brian Bushey:
Results: Zone4 | FIS (but currently entered using a mass start F-value so everyone’s points are wrong after the winner) (yes the jury knows about this; I notified them last night before posting the women’s article; they are working on this)
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