Skiing

All-Alaska men’s team finishes 7th in World Cup relay race

The all-Alaska relay team of David Norris, Gus Schumacher, Scott Patterson and Hunter Wonders claimed seventh place in an 11-team field Sunday in a World Cup race in Lahti, Finland.

The race marked what is believed to be the first time an all-Alaska team represented the United States in a World Cup, World Championship or Olympic relay race. Norris, Patterson and Wonders train with Alaska Pacific University and Schumacher trains with the Alaska Winter Stars.

In the women’s relay, two Anchorage skiers helped the Americans to fifth place.

Rosie Brennan of APU sizzled through the scramble leg, leaving the U.S. women in fourth place but just 2.1 seconds off the lead. But the Americans couldn’t stay in the mix for a potential podium finish and were in fifth place -- and 68 seconds behind the leaders -- by the time anchor leg Caitlin Patterson of Anchorage took over.

Norway captured gold in both races.

The Alaskan men finished a little more than four minutes behind the Norwegian men; they were about 70 seconds behind sixth-place Sweden and more than 80 seconds ahead of eighth-place Finland II.

They were one of the youngest teams in the race, with two members -- Schumacher, 20, and Wonders, 22 -- scheduled to compete in next month’s U23 World Championships for skiers under 23. None of Sunday’s medal-winning teams -- Norway, Finland I, Russia II -- had skiers young enough to race in those championships.

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It was the first World Cup relay race for Schumacher and Wonders, but neither are newcomers to high-pressure relay races. Both were members of the U.S. team that captured the silver medal at the 2018 World Junior Championships, and Schumacher was a member of gold-medal relay teams at the 2019 and 2020 World Juniors.

The men skied a 4x7.5-kilometer relay, and the women skied a 4x5K. The first two legs of each race were classic, followed by two freestyle legs.

Norris, a 30-year-old in his first weekend of competition after recovering from COVID-19, put the Americans in ninth place after the first leg. Schumacher pulled them up to eighth place with the sixth-fastest time of the second leg.

Patterson, 28, turned in the fourth-fastest time of the third leg, putting the team in seventh place. Wonders held onto that position with his anchor leg.

Among the teams that crossed the finish line ahead of the Alaskans was the Russia I team, which was disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior by anchor leg Alexander Bolshunov, the World Cup overall leader. Bulshunov lost a sprint for the silver medal to Finland I’s Joni Maeki, appearing to take a swipe at Maeki with his pole down the final stretch. As Maeki was celebrating with teammates in the finish area, Bulshunov skied directly into him, knocking him to the ground.

U.S. coach Matt Whitcomb condemned Bolshunov’s actions, saying an American skier would be kicked off the team for such behavior. “A disqualification would just be the beginning of their problems,” Whitcomb said.

Beth Bragg

Beth Bragg is the sports editor for Anchorage Daily News. Contact her at bbragg@adn.com.

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