After all, two days earlier the UAF freshman delivered perhaps the most surprising finish so far at the week-long championship at Kincaid Park, a fourth place in Saturday's freestyle sprint. A second faster and Kornfield would have stood on the podium.
"That was a man's race," Adam Verrier, the 1994 cross-country skiing Olympian from Anchorage who's announcing these championships at Kincaid, said of the sprint. "He never gave an inch."
Monday, Kornfield's finish in the 15-K earned him valuable points that all but sewed up a berth on the U.S. team headed to Germany later this month for the Nordic World Junior Ski Championships.
And while impressive, Kornfield isn't acting alone. He may just be the point man leading a bum rush of young Alaska skiers serving notice at these championships that they'll be a force to reckon with for years to come. Consider:
• Scott Patterson, the South High senior who's authored back to back state Skimeister titles. He finished 16th in Monday's 15-K, leaving national team skiers and former Olympian Andrew Johnson in his wake.
• Caitlin Patterson, Scott's sister and a freshman at the University of Vermont, who was 12th in the 10-K. The 2007 Skimeister earned NCAA All-American honors while skiing to two victories and six podium finishes for the Catamounts this season.
• Jamie Bronga, the former East High skier and 2008 Skimeister who rung up four top-5 races last season while helping lead UAA to a program-best fourth place at the NCAA Championships. At Kincaid, she was 47th in the 10-K and reach the quarterfinals of the sprint.
• David Norris of Fairbanks, who was 19th in the 15-K and reached the quarterfinal of the sprint. Last year, Norris was one of five young skiers selected to train in Park City, Utah, as part of the National Training Group. "I kind of saw it as a stepping stone to being on the U.S. Ski Team in the future," he said on the team's website. "What will be especially valuable is ... seeing what these athletes like (World Cup sprinter) Andy Newell are doing to train during the summer. Back at home, there is no one really faster to train with, so it's cool being around such fast, professional skiers."
Those five -- along with Eric Packer, Andrew Dougherty, Lex and Max Treinen, Alyson McPhetres, Kinsey Loan and Kate Backstrum -- make up the core of young Alaska skiers making waves.
Verrier said that while the group may not be extraordinarily talented, every skier is focused and determined. They've got help.
Over the past decade, such clubs as Alaska Winter Stars, coached Jan Buron, and Alaska Nordic Racing, coached by Ja Dorris and Joey Caterinichio, have matured. And at the APU Nordic Ski Center, talented young skiers can train beside Olympians.
The result, Verrier said, is a better support network that allows skiers to stick with their sport long enough to make serious gains. Bronga has make steady progress, he said, despite a glitch here and there, while Kornfield, who skied with Alaska Winter Stars for nine years, has made big strides each of the past two seasons.
Alaska's skiing history, Verrier noted, is littered with talent that burns bright briefly, only to flame out as skiers leave their teens. Often, though, skiers peak later than other athletes. Four-time Olympian Nina Kemppel of Anchorage delivered her finest Olympic performance in her last race.
And remember that Randall, already Alaska's greatest cross-country skier ever, didn't win a single Skimeister title in high school, rebuffed every year by Service's Tara Hamilton. By age 18, though, Randall was competing in her first Olympic Games.
At Saturday's championship opener, cars lined Raspberry Road nearly a mile from Kincaid Chalet. Alaska skiers flew out of the starting chute to cheers. Caitlin Patterson said it was the loudest crowd she'd ever skied before.
"I love it," Kornfield said. "Kincaid was buzzing. I thought this is a place I could get it done. I had a huge crowd cheering for me, and I really heard it when the announcer said I was the hometown favorite. That's as close I think as I've ever gotten to World Cup crowds, and it was fantastic.
"There was no way to keep the adrenaline from pumping."
Reach reporter Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.
Junior skiing
TODAY: Women's 20-K classic race starts at 10 a.m. and the men's 30-K starts at 11:15 a.m. Both are mass-start races. The junior women's 5-K individual start classic race starts at 12:45 p.m., with the junior men's 10-K classic event beginning at 1:25 p.m. The adaptive sit ski race begins at 2:20 p.m.
TEAMS: The U-23, World Juniors and Scandinavian Cup teams will be named at 6:30 p.m. tonight at Kincaid Chalet. The Olympic cross country team won't be announced until later this month.
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