After losing a gold medal by one-tenth of a second earlier in the week, Anchorage skier Hunter Wonders left nothing in doubt Friday at the U.S. Junior National cross-country ski championships.
Wonders blazed to a 37-second victory in the 15-kilometer classic race to lead a strong day by Alaska skiers in Lake Placid, New York.
He was one of five Alaskans to win medals.
Three grabbed silver medals — Gus Schumacher and George Cvancara of Anchorage and Kendall Kramer of Fairbanks. Luke Jager of Anchorage took a bronze medal.
Wonders, a South High skier who trains at Alaska Pacific University, crushed the field in the Under 20 boys classic race with a time of 45 minutes, 15.7 seconds.
It was his second medal of the race series at Lake Placid's Mount Van Hoevenberg. Wonders narrowly missed victory in Monday's freestyle race and placed sixth in Wednesday's classic sprint.
Schumacher, a Service High skier who trains with the Alaska Winters Stars, collected his third medal in three races. He captured gold medals on Monday and Wednesday.
On Friday, Schumacher led a 2-3-5 finish for Team Alaska in the U18 10K classic by posting a time of 29:48.3, nearly 12 seconds off the pace set by winter Ben Ogden of Vermont.
Jager placed third (30:06.2) and Canyon Tobin placed fifth (30:12.9). The medal was the second of the week for Jager, who finished second to Schumacher in Monday's freestyle race.
Cvancara, a Dimond skier who trains with Alaska Nordic Racing, and Kramer, a West Valley skier who trains with Fairbanks XC, earned their second-place medals in the U16 boys and girls 5K classic races, respectively.
Seven other Alaskans made it into the top 15 on Friday:
— APU's Maggie York placed fifth and UAF's Anna Darnell placed 12th in the U20 girls 10K classic.
— AWS's Molly Gellert placed fourth, FXC's Jenna DiFolco was 13th and APU's Aubrey LeClair 15th in the U18 girls 10K.
— ANR's Annika Hanestad was 10th in the U16 girls 5K classic.
— AWS's Eli Hermanson was 14th in the U16 boys 5K classic.
The championships conclude Saturday with relay races.