Anchorage Daily News

On a day when winter returned to Kincaid Park, a girl named Noyes helped Team Intermountain make some noise and the boys from Alaska gave the home team something to celebrate.

The Alaska and Intermountain divisions each staged a podium sweep Wednesday at the Junior Olympics cross country ski championships, where an early morning snowfall put a blanket of white over the brown hills and slushy trails that racers faced just two days ago.

Mali Noyes led Intermountain to a 1-2-3 finish in the Older Junior girls skate race and Lex Treinen, Eric Packer and Cole Talbot gave Alaska gold, silver and bronze in the Junior I boys skate race.

"It's really nice to do that in our hometown," Talbot said.

Making it especially sweet, he said, is that all three skiers are teammates on the Alaska Winter Stars team, one of several ski racing clubs in Anchorage.

The Winter Stars lived up to their name by producing all five of Alaska's medal winners. Scott Patterson won the Junior II boys race (for skiers aged 14-15) and Lex's brother Max placed third in the Older Junior boys race (ages 18-19) to supplement the trio of medals that came in the Junior I boys race (ages 16-17)

"Show me some feeling!" Winter Stars coach Jan Buron shouted as Treinen, Packer and Talbot posed for photos atop the podium.

The skiers complied, breaking into smiles that matched that of their exuberant coach.

With Alaskans claiming 16 top-10 finishes in Wednesday's six freestyle races, there was reason to beam. The effort moved Alaska into the lead of the overall team standings with 760 points, 60 more than second-place New England. Alaska was two points out of the lead after Monday's sprint races.

It was a day of commanding performances by each of the six individual winners.

The smallest margin of victory came in the 5-kilometer Junior II girls race, won by New England's Tara Garaghty-Moats. She finished in 16 minutes, 36.6 seconds, beating Intermountain's Katie Gill by 6.8 seconds.

All of the other gold medalists enjoyed comfortable wins. Jessie Diggins of the Midwest region won the Junior I girls race in 15:58.3, beating Intermountain's Kate Dolan by 26.8 seconds. Noyes won the Older Junior girls race in 15:52.6, beating Intermountain teammate Ase Carlson by 28.1 seconds.

In the 10-kilometer boys races, Lex Treinen's winning time of 27:52.8 put him 17.3 seconds in front of Packer and 26.9 seconds in front of Talbot. Noah Hoffman's 27:40.3 gave him a 27.6 edge over second-place Tad Elliott of the Rocky Mountain region.

But no one won easier than Patterson, a 16-year-old from South High whose victory in the 5-kilometer Junior II race in 13:20.2 put him 76.5 seconds ahead of silver-medalist David Sinclair of New England.

For some perspective, consider that 5 kilometers equals 3.1 miles. That means Patterson skied each mile 25 seconds faster than Sinclair, one of the top junior racers in the country.

"A minute is a big gap," Patterson said. "It was pretty sweet."

Patterson started ninth in the interval-start race, 3.5 minutes behind Sinclair but ahead of more than 30 other J-II racers. At a couple of points on the course, he was told by coaches along the trail that he had a 50-second lead in the short race.

He kept pushing.

"It's instinct, basically," he said. "Plus I know splits can be wrong."

In this case, the splits -- a phrase meaning the amount of time separating the leader from everyone else -- were right on. Patterson's 50-second lead grew, and just about everyone was astonished by his final margin of 1:16.5, including his teammates.

Talbot thinks Patterson would've stacked up well against the older racers who skied twice the distance as the J-IIs.

"It's too bad he couldn't ski with us," Talbot said.

Talbot held a two-second lead over Lex Treinen near the completion of the first lap of the J-I race, but Treinen turned things up a notch on his second lap.

"I always play the first lap conservatively," he said.

Plus, he had extra incentive to do well. He had been disqualified from Monday's classical sprint race for briefly using the skating technique, and he figured his mistake was one of the reasons Alaska came into Wednesday's action trailing in the team standings.

"We were two points behind in the (standings) and I felt bad about that," Treinen said.

Now Alaska is in the lead and feeling good about Friday's mass-start classical races: "Our classic is very strong," Buron said.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

Team standings

1) Alaska (AK) 760 points, 2) New England (NE) 700, 3) Intermountain (IM) 549, 4) Midwest 343, 5) Rocky Mountain (RM) 148, 6) Pacific Northwest (PN) 97, 7) Mid-Atlantic (MA) 72, 8) High Plains (HP) 31, 9) Far West (FW) 30, 10) Great Lakes (GL) 6.

Individual results

Top 20

Girls 5-kilometer freestyle

Junior II (born in 1991-92) -- 1) Tara Geraghty-Moats, NE, 16:36.6; 2) Katie Gill, IM, 16:43.4; 3) Heidi Caldwell, NE, 16:51.5; 4) Joanne Reid, FW, 16:56.4; 5) Stella Holt, IM, 17:00.8; 6) Sharmila Ahmed, MW, 17:11.1; 7) Jen Rolfes, MW, 17:14.7; 8) Karina Packer, AK, 17:17.6; 9) Alicia Rose Pastore, RM, 17:167.9; 10) Isabel Caldwell, NE, 17:19.4; 11) Annie Liotta, AK, 17:29.2; 12) Annie Hart, MW, 17:29.4; 13) Kate Backstrum, AK, 17:29.8; 14) Kinsey Loan, AK, 17:31.1; 15) Carly Wynn, MA, 17:31.4; 16) Elizabeth Anderson, NE, 17:34.1; 17) Kristin Halvorsen, NE, 17:41.0; 18) Jessica Jortberg, RM, 17:42.9; 19) Gage Fichter, NE, 17:46.1; 20) Brooke Adams, MW, 17:46.3.

Junior I (born in 1989-90) -- 1) Jessie Diggins, MW, 15:58.3; 2) Kate Dolan, IM, 16:25.1; 3) Adele Espy, NE, 16:27.2; 4) Jamie Bronga, AK, 16:41.2; 5) Amy Glen, AK, 16:43.1; 6) Hilary Rich, NE, 16:45.7; 7) Sophie Caldwell, NE, 16:50.5; 8) Monica Markvardsen, IM, 16:51.4; 9) Elizabeth Guiney, IM, 16:54.4; 10) Libby Ellis, MW, 16:59.8; 11) Keely Levins, NE, 17:01.3; 12) Lynn Duijndam, MW, 17:05.3; 13) Megan Killigrew, NE, 17:07.1; 14) Caitlin Patterson, AK, 17:10.1; 15) Grace Boutot, NE, 17:11.0; 16) Paige Elliott, RM, 17:13.5; 17) Gretchen Sellegren, IM, 17:15.9; 18) Casey Kutz, PN, 17:20.2; 19) Corinne Prevot, NE, 17:21.8; 20) Makayla Cappel, IM, 17:23.6.

Older Junior II (born in 1987-88) -- 1) Mali Noyes, IM, 15:52.6; 2) Ase Carlson, IM, 16:20.7; 3) Erika Flowers, IM, 16:53.0; 4) Katie Miller, NE, 16:54.3; 5) Lucy Garrec, NE, 16:55.5; 6) Becca Rorabaugh, AK, 17:05.9; 7) Mae Foster, NE, 17:07.4; 8) Christina Gillis, AK, 17:12.1; 9) Hanna Johnson, AK, 17:20.4; 10) Caitlin Curran, NE, 17:21.2; 11) Briana Perkins, RM, 17:25.6; 12) Carolyn Freeman, MW, 17:27.5; 13) Maddie Talkington, NE, 17:33.8; 14) Rachelle Kanady, AK, 17:34.4; 15) Kalysta Schmidt, AK, 17:34.9; 16) Parker Tyler, NE, 17:35.8; 17) Melanie Hoffman, MW, 17:38.8; 18) Jackie Pribyl, MW, 17:44.5; 19) Ruth McGovern, NE, 17:47.5; 20) Martina Stonawska, PN, 17:49.1

Boys 5-kilometer freestyle

Junior II (born in 1991-92) -- 1) Scott Patterson, AK, 13:20.2; 2) David Sinclair, NE, 14:36.7; 3) Will Wicherski, IM, 14:42.3; 4) Silas Talbot, AK, 14:43.5; 5) Spencer Lacy, RM, 14:49.6; 6) Daniel Sundali, IM, 14:50.7; 7) Steve Mangan, MA, 14:51.8; 8) Johnny Springer, IM, 14:58.4; 9) Tanner Putt, IM, 15:01.3; 10) Tanner Wiegand, IM, 15:04.7; 11) Nick Michaud, NE, 15:19.3; 12) Logan Hanneman, AK, 15:24.6; 13) Sam Dougherty, AK, 15:24.7; 14) Levin Zars, HP, 15:27.1; 15) Eric Ryan, AK, 15:32.8; 16) Casey Smith, PN, 15:36.3; 17) Michael Howe, MW, 15:40.7; 18) Andy Dodds, MW, 15:45.0; 19) Bridger Tyler, NE, 15:45.4; 20) Ross Williams, GL, 15:46.1.

Boys 10-kilometer freestyle

Junior I (born in 1989-90) -- 1) Lex Treinen, AK, 27:52.8; 2) Eric Packer, AK, 28:10.1; 3) Cole Talbot, AK, 28:19.7; 4) Chris Bowler, MW, 28:39.7; 5) Sam Tarling, NE, 28:54.9; 6) Erik Bjornsen, PN, 29:01.1; 7) George Cartwright, HP, 29:07.3; 8) Andrew Dougherty, AK, 29:09.0; 9) Tyler Kornfield, AK, 29:18.0; 10) Hans Nygren, MW, 29:18.9; 11) Joe Dubay, MW, 29:29.6; 12) Lauren Turner, NE, 29:40.4; 13) Marshall Opel, IM, 29:51.9; 14) David Norris, AK, 30:07.5; 15) Max Durtschi, IM, 30:08.5; 16) Travis Job, IM, 30:14.3; 17) Erik Fagerstrom, MW, 30:20.0; 18) Chase Marston, NE, 30:24.5; 19) Connor Brown, IM, 30:30.0; 20) Tosch Roy, PN, 30:36.5.

Older Junior (born in 1987-88) -- 1) Noah Hoffman, IM, 27:40.3; 2) Tad Elliott, RM, 28:07.9; 3) Max Treinen, AK, 28:26.9; 4) Erick Romig, AK, 28:46.3; 5) Ian Havlick, IM, 28:59.6; 6) Josh Yeaton, AK, 29:00.1; 7) Taylor Sundali, IM, 29:06.9; 8) Willie Neal, IM, 29:16.0; 9) Reid Pletcher, IM, 29:19.6; 10) Matt Pierce, MW, 29:22.5; 11) Michael Matteson, AK, 29:35.4; 12) Jens Brabbit, MW, 29:35.9; 13) Waylon Manske, MW, 29:36.6; 14) Erik Anderson, IM, 29:41.8; 15) Peter Rummel, NE, 29:53.4; 16) Harrison Harb, NE, 29:55.2; 17) Miles Havlick, RM, 29:56.9; 18) Sam Marshall, NE, 30:13.6; 19) Graham Egan, NE, 30:16.3; 20) Adam Terko, NE, 30:19.5.

ADVERTISEMENT