US Elite Racing: Craftsbury SuperTour Recap

by Michaela Keller-Miller
February 6, 2022

The US SuperTour continued at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont with a jam-packed three-day weekend of racing. First up was a skate sprint on nearly a foot of fresh powder on Friday. The following day, skiers lined up for a 10-kilometer classic race, which was stage one of a two-day pursuit. Sunday marked the culmination of the pursuit and Craftsbury SuperTour with a 7.5-kilometer skate pursuit start for the women and a 10-kilometer skate pursuit for the men.

On Friday, skiers were presented with challenging conditions for a skate sprint, as nearly a foot of snow had accumulated overnight and snow continued falling throughout the day. Skiers navigated the soft snow on a 1.5-kilometer loop, which started with gently rolling terrain into a high-speed downhill and was followed with climbs into the finish. Qualifying in the first position in the women’s race was Alayna Sonnesyn of SMST2 in 3:58.27, with a nearly five second margin over Lauren Jortberg of BSF Pro in 4:03.0. Rosie Frankowski of APU clocked in third in 4:06.46. Just one second back was Margie Freed of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, qualifying in the sixth position in 4:07.87. Also qualifying for heats was Luci Anderson (University of New Hampshire) in 16th in 4:14.30, Renae Anderson (Bowdoin College) was 19th in 4:15.73, Erin Bianco (Colby College) qualified 21st in 4:18.47, Julie Ensrud (Team Birkie) was 25th in 4:20.15, and Michaela Keller-Miller (CGRP) placed 30th in 4:20.67.

Skiing strategically and smoothly through the quarterfinal heats were Sonnesyn, Freed, and Frankowski, each placing first or second to automatically move through to the semifinals. In the first semifinal, Katharine Ogden of SMST2 showed control and placed first in 3:57.03 to automatically move through to the final. Sonnesyn, who took a tumble in the semifinal, finished third. In the second semifinal, both Frankowski and Freed stayed in the mix and crossed the line in third in 3:53.94 and fourth in 3:54.14, respectively. As their times were both faster than the third and fourth place times in semifinal one, they both earned lucky loser positions in the final.

Sonnesyn and Ogden cruising through their quarterfinal. (Credit: Jen Forbes/@jeni_forbes)

The women’s final proved to be a tight race from start to finish, ultimately coming down to a sprint on the homestretch. Ogden once again showcased her heat skiing prowess, crossing the line in first in 3:59.08. Jortberg, also skiing strong throughout the heats, ended the day in second in 4.00.38. Ava Thurston, a junior phenom from Mansfield Nordic Club, podiumed in third place in 4:00.82. Anna Bizyukova (UVM) was fourth in 4:00.94. Frankowski fought to fifth place in 4:00.99, followed by Freed in sixth in 4:03.59.

Frankowski provides further insight into sprint day, “I love skiing in powder so I was psyched for Friday’s sprint. I wish it would have been a distance skate race though—my true favorite conditions. I shocked myself by qualifying in the top three and then just tried to take each heat as it came. I held down my record for getting lucky loser in the semifinal (it’s a goal of mine haha!), and then in the final heat, I was in a three way lunge for third, but my short legs didn’t quite have the stretch and I ended up 5th. As someone who has never truly enjoyed racing sprints, I was happy with 5th on the day and happy to get the sprint over with on day one of our three day series.”

Reflecting on sprint day and the weekend, Sonnesyn says, “Overall this week was some great racing and ski conditions. There was quite a bit of fresh snow on Thursday/Friday. I was bummed to take a tumble in the semifinal of Friday's sprint and just miss the final, but feel like I made up for it racing on Saturday/Sunday. The Craftsbury Outdoor Center did a phenomenal job grooming with the fresh foot of snow, and we had some picturesque classic skiing on Saturday.”

In the men’s skate sprint, the Sun Valley Gold Team swept the top three qualifying positions. Karl Schulz had the top qualifying time of the day in 3:23.48, followed by Peter Holmes in 3:23.81, and Johnny Hagenbuch in third in 3:24.69. Zak Ketterson of Team Birkie qualified in a strong fifth place in 3:26.88. Adam Martin of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project was 26th place in 3:33.79, followed by Reid Goble (BSF Pro) in 28th in 3:34.15.

In the quarterfinal heats, Ketterson won his heat, as did Schulz and Holmes. The semifinal heats proved to be highly contested, as the first through fourth place times in each heat were separated by a mere second. Ketterson earned a lucky loser position by placing third in the first semifinal, his time of 3:17.59 comfortably earning him the first of two lucky loser slots. The top qualifier, Schulz, was knocked out by placing fifth in Ketterson’s semifinal.

The final was a showdown between Ketterson, two University of Vermont skiers, Matias Oevrum and Gregory Burt, and two Sun Valley Gold skiers, Sam Wood and Peter Holmes, and Canadian Etienne Hebert. Once again coming down to the wire, Ketterson edged out Oevrum for the win in 3:22.57. Oevrum clinched second place in 3:22.85, followed by Hebert in 3:24.74. Wood was fourth in 3:27.47, followed by Burt in 3:29.74, and Holmes in 3:33.39.

Ketterson pulling away for the sprint victory. (Credit: Dave Priganc)

Ketterson reports on his win, “I had a great time in the skate sprint. I felt like I had a lot to prove after a really disappointing skate sprint earlier in the season in Duluth. The conditions were tricky with a ton of fresh snow, but I felt really well prepared for the conditions after skiing at NMU on lake effect snow for five years! I had great skis and was able to maintain good energy through all of the heats.”

By Saturday, the snow had settled, and conditions firmed up. Both the men and the women raced two laps of a challenging five-kilometer course. As in the sprint course, the five-kilometer course begins with rolling terrain out of the stadium, but quickly presents more significant climbs. Following a long, working downhill, the course begins its long ascent back to the stadium. As the classic 10-kilometer interval start race determined skiers’ starting positions in Sunday’s skate pursuit, there was strong incentive to push hard throughout.

The women began the day, facing single-digit temperatures on new snow. Ogden continued her strong weekend showing, placing first in 30:59.8 and earning a comfortable 30-second lead for the following day’s pursuit. Still in contention for the pursuit win were Sonnesyn and Frankowski, finishing just 0.2 seconds apart. Sonnesyn skied to second place in 31:26.4 and Frankowski was third in 31:26.6. Bianco put on a strong performance, cracking the top 10 with a 10th place in 32:31.5. Freed and Hannah Rudd (BSF Pro) were close behind in the 12th and 13th positions, respectively, in 32:45.1 and 32:48.9. Keller-Miller finished 24th in 33:19.8, followed by Mara McCollor (Dartmouth College) in 27th in 33:25.1, and Renae Anderson (Bowdoin College) in 28th place in 33:30.3.

Frankowski powering up a climb. (Credit: Dave Priganc)
Sonnesyn, Ogden, and Frankowski on the women’s classic 10km podium. (Credit: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

The men took to the course second, with similar snow conditions to the women. As has happened in so many classic distance races this season, Martin came out on top, finishing in a time of 26:56.9. Close behind and setting up for a tight pursuit on Sunday, Ketterson placed second in 27:09.3. Hagenbuch was third in 27:21.3. Goble finished in the top-15, placing 15th in 28:14.5.

Martin making moves in the men’s 10km classic. (Credit: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)

The final day of the Craftsbury SuperTour weekend involved a 7.5-kilometer skate pursuit for the women and a 10-kilometer pursuit for the men. As many of the college skiers in Saturday’s classic race opted out of the pursuit portion, as the skate pursuit did not count toward college NCAA qualification, the fields were slightly smaller. Temperatures remained in the single digits and snow conditions were very similar to Saturday’s classic race. With the pursuit format, many skiers’ start times were close together, making for exciting pack skiing, as various packs formed to reel in the skiers ahead.

Starting the day, the men began what proved to be an extremely close race. With the target on Martin, skiers took off intent on crossing the line in first. As the race progressed, five skiers were in contention for the pursuit win. Martin and Ketterson duked it out with Hagenbuch, Finn O’Connell of BSF Pro, and Schulz. Heading into the homestretch, Hagenbuch pulled ahead, winning by just one second in 26:02.0. Martin held on for second place in 26:03.2. Less than one-tenth of a second behind, Ketterson placed third, also in 26:03.2. Goble, with the fourth-fastest skate time of the day, moved up five places from 13th to finish eighth place in 27:04.6.

Martin gives the inside scoop, “It was fun to do a pursuit style start today. I’ve done a few other pursuit starts in the last few years, but they always remind me of the high school state meet. I started with a narrow lead from yesterday, and I tried to go out hard. However Zak quickly caught up, and by 5k it turned into a five person tactical race. It stayed this way until the final climb 1.5 or 2k from the finish when it all sort of blew up and we sprinted toward the finish.”

In the women’s race, Sonnesyn and Frankowski started together, knowing they would have to make up 30 seconds on Ogden to take the win. However, they had the advantage of working together and trading leads to close this gap. This teamwork proved too much for Ogden, as Sonnesyn and Frankowski blazed through the course, passing Ogden and fighting for win. In the final kilometer, Sonnesyn used her lastreserves of energy to power up the long climb (named Screaming Mimi) and cross the line in first in 19:40.5 with the fastest time of the day of 19:14.5. Not far behind, Frankowski finished second in 19:44.0, fittingly skiing to the second-fastest time of the day in 19:17.0. Ogden fought to third place, with a pursuit time (and time of day time) of 20:03.5.

Sonnesyn reflects on the day’s pursuit race, “Really happy with today's pursuit! I knew Rosie would want to take it out pretty hot to chase the leader and that's exactly what we did. From there, we started playing cat and mouse a little - trying to conserve energy but also keep the pace up so no one would catch us. I feel like we played it well tactically and pushed some of the hills but saved just a bit of extra energy for the final kilometer, which I knew would be hot. The last pitch on Screaming Mimi I put my head down and just gave it whatever I had left.”

Frankowski also weighs in on the pursuit, “The pursuit was more fun than I expected it to be. I don’t ever race with a race plan because I think that some of the fun of racing is seeing what unexpected situations pop up and how you can respond. I hoped I would get to work together with Alayna and Becca, and that maybe we could catch Katherine since she had the hard job of skiing out alone. All in all, it worked out quite well. I felt really good and honestly wished we had another lap to keep racing at the end. I tried for once in my life to be smart and not lead all the time, which led to some cat and mouse games in the middle, but also made it so that the race wasn’t that hard overall. I love going directly up Screaming Mimi’s hill and so each lap I really liked that part.”

In regard to the course, Frankowski mentions, ”Screaming Mimi’s was great. Thanks Ollie for making that course up for our pursuit. Grooming, course marking, volunteers—everything was spectacular as it always is at Craftsbury.”

As Sonnesyn has lived in Vermont since leaving Minnesota following high school, she adds, “Midwest will always be my home, but Vermont has become my second home the past eight years. It was pretty incredible hearing so many people cheering my name this weekend and definitely kept me charging up those hills. Really fun to be around such a great ski community and feeling the love for the sport. Excited for more! #BIRKIEFEVER!!!”

Freed, working with a pack to close on the skiers ahead, moved up to finish eighth in the pursuit in 21:28.0. Her skate time of the day was the fourth fastest, clocking in at 19:41.1. Rudd skied with Freed for much of the race, ending in 11th place in 21:41.5. Keller-Miller moved up several places to finish 15th in 22:57.4. Sarah Goble (SVSEF Gold) skied to 19th place in the pursuit in 23:58.4.

This past weekend’s racing marked the second-to-last domestic SuperTour of the season. The next race on the US SuperTour circuit will be the American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin. Following the Birkebeiner, SuperTour racers will conclude their season in Whistler, British Columbia at Spring US Nationals, which is combined with the Canadian National Championships.

About the author...

Michaela Keller-Miller, a graduate of Wayzata High School and the University of Alaska Anchorage, skis for the Green Racing Project based out of Craftsbury, Vermont. Her ideal day would probably involve a long trail run followed by a stack of pancakes with maple syrup and a chai latte.