She crashed in the semifinals and lost a shot at racing in the finals and vying for a World Cup medal, but Anchorage cross-country skier Kikkan Randall was happy -- if not content -- with a season-best finish in her specialty Sunday in Davos, Switzerland.

Randall, who is gearing up for her third Winter Olympics two months from now, placed seventh in the women's freestyle sprint race.

After placing a solid 17th in the preliminary heats, Randall won her quarterfinal heat and was in good position to make the finals in her semifinal heat. Then, as she powered her way up a steep climb, things got crazy the way they sometimes do in a sprint race, where short races mean lots of contact and traffic jams.

"I tried to make a move up the outside of the hill but two skiers in front of me got tangled up and our whole pack came to a halt as we all tried to get untangled," Randall, who trains with Alaska Pacific University, wrote in an e-mail. "I definitely got the bum end of that deal as I was stuck and couldn't move, dropping to last."

Randall recovered well enough to ski into fourth place, and on the final turn she surged into third place and maintained that position until the end. The top two finishers in each semifinal automatically qualified for the five-woman finals, but one other spot was awarded to the "lucky loser" -- the skier with the fastest semifinal time who didn't automatically advance.

The traffic jam at the top of the hill wound up costing Randall too much time to get lucky -- she missed advancing to the finals by six-tenths of a second.

"I definitely let out a big stomp into the ground when I heard the announcement," she wrote. "I was feeling stronger and stronger every round and was bummed not to have a shot in the final."

She said she was nonetheless happy. The day provided redemption from an uncharacteristically poor showing in Saturday's distance race, where she placed 85th.

And it signaled that the only American woman to win a World Cup gold medal is making good progress as the Olympics approach, "a good sign that my sprinting fitness is coming up," she said.

Victories in Sunday's sprint races went to Petra Majdic of Slovenia and John Kristian Dahl of Norway. The top American man was Andy Newell of Vermont, who placed 22nd. Lars Flora of Anchorage finished 73rd.