The 2020 ASAA/First National Bank Alaska Nordic Ski State Championships, featuring three days of competition on the Kincaid Trails in Anchorage, opened with individual freestyle racing on Thursday, February 20th.
Competition continues with the individual classic style skiing on Friday and mixed relay events on Saturday.
The Soldotna High School girls and boys lead the peninsula teams in the team scoring following the freestyle events. The Service girls lead the girls team standings with the SoHi girls standing in 9th; the Service boys also top the field with the Star boys in 6th in day-one team scoring.
ASAA Nordic Ski Championships: Freestyle
Girls Individual results:
Reigning state champion Kendall Kramer from West Valley posted the fastest time in the girls 5K freestyle at 13:50.5.
Homer’s Autumn Daigle finished 20th to top peninsula skiers; followed by Kenai’s Jayna Boonstra in 23rd; and SoHi’s Erika Arthur, 31st; Jordan Ruffner, 32nd; Katie Delker, 33rd and Cameron Blackwell, 50th.
Boys Individual results:
Service High’s Alexander Maurer topped the field in the boys 7.5K freestyle with a time of 17:08.3. SoHi’s Bradley Walters posted the fastest time for a peninsula skier with a 18:43.8, good for 15th overall. Top-50 performances were also recorded by SoHi’s Quinn Cox, 31st; SoHi’s Jack Harris, 34th; Kenai’s Tyler Hippchen, 40th; SoHi’s Foster Boze, 45th and SoHi’s Ryder Geisler, 50th.
ASAA Nordic Ski Championships
February 20-22 at Kincaid Trails in Anchorage
Friday, February 21
11:00 a.m. Boys 10K Mass Start Classic Technique Race
1:00 p.m. Girls 7.5K Mass Start Classic Technique Race
Saturday, February 22
11:00 a.m. Girls 4 x 3K Mixed Technique (Classic-Classic-Free-Free)
1:00 p.m. Boys 4 x 5K Mixed Technique (Classic-Classic-Free-Free)
ASAA Nordic Ski Championships: Procedures
Qualifying Process: All schools that have Nordic ski programs are invited to send one boys team of 6 individuals and one girls team of 6 individuals. Schools can send less than a complete team if they wish.
Team members are to be selected by the head coach with no specific ASAA qualifying criteria other than normal eligibility rules.
Race Format: The state championships are held over a three-day
period with one race for boys and one race for girls each day.
The races include two individual competitions and one relay competitions. The style of races will alternate each year. Girls will start first on freestyle days and boys will start first on classical days. Mass Starts will use a chevron start system to provide a better and safer opportunity for the best skiers to advance to the front.
Race order for EVEN years:
Day 1 – Individual Freestyle Race (5k girls, 7.5k boys)
Day 2 – Mass Start Classic Race (10k boys, 7.5k girls)
Day 3 – Team Relays (4 x 3k girls followed by 4 x 5k boys)
Seeding:
Individual Races. There will be six seed groups for each individual race. Only one skier per team may be placed in each group. Please note with the entry form that coaches should seed the skiers for the interval start freestyle technique race and that seeding for the mass start classic race will be based upon the freestyle technique result, so they SHOULD NOT seed based on the skiers’ classic technique skills.
Mass Start Races: The results of the individual races held on Thursday will be used to seed the Mass Start Race
on Friday using the chevron start format. There will be no manipulation of the Thursday results by the Race
Committee to accommodate any issue that might occur with an individual (illness, breaking a pole, etc.).
Individuals own their positions, not the team. Therefore, skiers performing poorly in the individual races
cannot replace teammates positions in the mass race.
