Becca Rorabaugh and Rosie quarter final
Anchorage, AK. The final day of racing at the US National Championships took place today at Kincaid Park- Classic Sprint. As was the case in Friday’s Skate sprint, today’s Classic sprint was the same story- qualification round of racing was worth double the points towards Olympic qualification and the heats results were used to determine the National Champions. In the Men’s qualification race, APU men went 1,2,3 with Reese Hanneman taking the top qualifying spot, Logan Hanneman was 2nd and Tyler Kornfield 3rd.
In the quarterfinals, Reese Hanneman maintained his top spot. Other APU men that advanced to the semi-finals were Thomas O’Harra (as lucky loser), Forrest Mahlen, Logan Hanneman, Tyler Kornfield and David Norris (as lucky loser). Reese Hanneman also won his semi- final and went on to the final along with teammates Logan Hanneman and Tyler Kornfield. Reese Hanneman claimed his 2nd national sprint title this week by winning the final in 3:21.93 over teammate Tyler Kornfield and Logan Hanneman finished 4th.
In the Women’s race, Becca Rorabaugh qualified 2nd overall and top American. Becca finished 2nd in her quarter, first in her semi before going on to take 4th overall in the final and 3rd American on the day.
Junior Luke Jager advanced to the senior heats and went on to finish as the 3rd best Junior on the day.
Becca Rorabaugh 3rd classic sprint
In the Junior final, Hunter Wonders took the top spot (4th overall on the day), Canyon Tobin placed 2nd (5th overall) and Zanden McMullen 4th (6th overall). Junior Aubrey LeClair advanced to the Junior final finishing 5th (9th overall junior).
The depth of the APU team was shown this week as APU athletes took 11 of the 24 U.S. podium spots in the Senior races and 8 of the 24 Junior podium spots.
The 2018 U.S. Olympic team should be named in full on or before January 19th.
U18 Nordic Nations, World Juniors and U23 teams were named, with a half dozen APU athletes making the U.S. Teams.
Zanden McMullen qualified for the U18 trip, which will take place in Vuokatti, Finland January 21-January 31
Luke Jager qualified for the World Juniors, which will take place in Gom, Switzerland(also qualified for U18 Nordic Nations trip, but opted for World Juniors) January 25-Feb 4
Canyon Tobin qualified for World Juniors
Hunter Wonders qualified for World Juniors (pre-qualified in West Yellowstone having raced a sub 50 FIS pt race)
Thomas O’Harra qualified for the U23 team, which will take place in Gom, Switzerland January 25-Feb 4
Hannah Halverson qualified for World Juniors
Full results from US Nationals can be viewed on Superior Timing.
Becca Rorabaugh on qualifying as top American and going on to win Bronze
“It was surprising and exciting to qualify so well in the Classic sprint! I’ve been trying to get better at qualification and it is great to see the effort pay off! It is a positive way to start the day, but the heats are the most fun! I love tactical racing and it is great to have a fast downhill to keep things interesting. Our skis were fantastic and the conditions were my favorite kind of firm hardwax skiing, plenty of people came out to cheer, the sun rose and the mountains had alpenglow… it was just a really fun day all around. It’s really meaningful to be able to have such a great performance at home!”
