Alaska women made a good first impression Saturday on the opening day of the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Championships in Utah.
Chelsea Holmes and Caitlin Patterson claimed silver and bronze in the 10-kilometer freestyle race at Soldier Hollow, leading four Alaska women into the top six in the race.
Alaska's men didn't fare as well.
Logan Hanneman's 14th-place finish was the best showing by an Alaskan in the men's 15K freestyle. Scott Patterson was 16th and David Norris — who broke the Mount Marathon record last summer — was 24th.
Victories went to Minnesota racers Caitlin Gregg of Minneapolis and Kyle Bratrud of Eden Prairie.
Gregg edged Holmes by 2.2 seconds with a time of 27 minutes, 0.6 seconds. It was the eighth career national championship for Gregg, who earned the bronze medal in the same event at the 2015 World Championships.
Gregg, 36, was one of two women over 30 who raced Saturday. The other finished 108th.
Holmes, a 29-year-old Girdwood woman who is a member of the Alaska Pacific University Nordic program, followed in 27:02.8, and Patterson, a 26-year-old Anchorage woman who trains in Vermont, was third in 27:15.1.
APU's Becca Rorabaugh (27:59.0) and Rosie Frankowski (28:05) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
UAA skier Hailey Swirbul (28:58.4) finished 20th — which placed her seventh among NCAA skiers — and Alaska Winter Stars skier Molly Gellert (29:29.4) placed 36th overall and third in the Under 18 age category.
Bratrud, a former NCAA skier for Northern Michigan, paced the men with a time of 34:52. Tad Elliott of Vail, Colorado, was second in 35:13.6.
Hanneman finished in 36:05.0, Patterson in 36:21.5 and Norris in 36:35.6.
Taking 26th place and winning the men's U-20 title was APU's Hunter Wonders (36:40.4). Gus Schumacher (38:21.1) of the Alaska Winter Stars finished third among U18 skiers and 63rd overall.
UAA's top skier in the men's race was Toomas Kollo, who was 65th overall and 20th among college racers.
Nearly 600 skiers are competing this week at Soldier Hollow, the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Spots on a couple of national teams are up for grabs, including the World Championships team, the World Junior Championships team and the U23 Championships team. Even so, the nation's very best skiers are not racing in Utah — they're competing on the World Cup tour in Europe.
Bjornsen drops out of Tour de Ski
A day after collecting her first podium finish in an individual World Cup race, Sadie Bjornsen of Anchorage woke up sick and had to drop out of the Tour de Ski race series.
Through five of seven races, Bjornsen ranked ninth in the overall standings.
The U.S. Ski Team should still land a skier in the top 10. Jessie Diggins of Minnesota finished eighth in Saturday's 10K classic race in Val di Fiemme, Italy, to hold onto fifth place in the overall standings.
The Tour concludes Sunday with the notoriously brutal Alpe Cermis hill climb, a 9K all-uphill race in which skiers climb 495 meters.
Canadians lead UAA alpine team
Charley Field and Dominic Unterberger led the UAA alpine ski team Saturday in an NCAA giant slalom race at Montana's Big Sky Resort.
Field, a junior from Pembroke, British Columbia, placed 11th in the women's race. Unterberger, a freshman from Revelstoke, British Columbia, placed 20th in the men's race.