ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Nordic senior
Andreas Kirkeng of the University of Denver ski team captured the U.S. Cross Country National Championship in men's classic sprints on Saturday at Kincaid Park.
Kirkeng has won a U.S. National Championship race in now each of the last three years after also finishing first in the 10K freestyle in 2023 in Houghton, Michigan, and the 10K classic last year in Midway, Utah. The Pioneer upperclassman won Saturday's final in a time of 2:55.49, winning by 44-hundreths of a second over Luke Jager (2:55.93), who goes down as the American champion after being the highest-placed skier from the United States.
Kirkeng was joined in the men's final by teammate
Florian Knopf, who ended up fourth with a time of 3:00.21 in the last race.
The Denver women had three student-athletes advance out of qualifying, with freshman
Eve-Ondine Duchaufour making it to the final and placing fourth overall. Fellow rookie
Anna Stewart ended up 16th and sophomore
Maja Moland was 21st, but neither skier made it out of the quarterfinals.
DU skiing is in Alaska for the start of the 2025 campaign with the Alaska Anchorage Invitational, which is being held in conjunction with this year's U.S. Cross Country National Championships. Saturday's races were a national championship-only race and the results didn't count for the UAA Invite.
DENVER MEN CLASSIC SPRINTS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1.
Andreas Kirkeng, 3:01.04 QFT/2:58.07 QF/2:53.30 SF/2:55.49 F
4.
Florian Knopf, 2:58.32 QFT/2:58.80 QF/2:59.39 SF/3:00.21 F
46.
Elijah Weenig, 3:09.79 QFT
66.
Joe Graziadei, 3:12.87 QFT
70.
Landon Wyatt, 3:13.41 QFT
74.
Micah Steinberg, 3:14.08 QFT
DNS:
Krystof Zatloukal
DENVER WOMEN CLASSIC SPRINTS INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
4.
Eve-Ondine Duchaufour, 3:35.30 QFT/3:29.92 QF/3:31.41 SF/3:32.81 F
16.
Anna Stewart, 3:40.88 QFT/3:35.38 QF
21.
Maja Moland, 3:41.81 QFT/3:35.45 QF
DNS:
Selma Andersen,
Sidney Barbier,
Lea Wenaas
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