4 Alaskans garner medals at US cross country ski championships

Anchorage’s Gus Schumacher and Hailey Swirbul were back on the podium Friday at the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships in Michigan, and this time they enjoyed the company of some fellow Alaskans.

Winners of gold medals in Thursday’s freestyle sprint races, Schumacher added a silver medal and Swirbul added a bronze in Friday’s freestyle distance races in Houghton, Michigan.

Joining them on the podium were Caitlin Patterson, the Service High graduate who lives in Vermont, and Erik Bjornsen, the two-time Olympian on break from the World Cup tour. Patterson claimed the gold medal in the women’s race, and Bjornsen shared the bronze medal in the men’s race.

It was the ninth national championship for Patterson, even though she didn’t win the race.

The fastest time in the women’s race belonged to five-time Olympic skier Riita Liisa Roponen of Finland, but foreign skiers aren’t eligible to win medals at the U.S. championships.

Not that Roponen is in need of another medal. She owns six World Championship medals and an Olympic bronze medal from the 2010 women’s relay race. At age 41, she is still tough to beat — she recently won a SuperTour race, and she won Friday’s race by nearly 20 seconds in a time of 27 minutes, 38.5 seconds.

Patterson was next in 27:56.9, followed by Vermont’s Alayna Sonnesyn (28:07.7) and Swirbul (28:08.7).

Two more Alaska women made the top 10 — seventh-place Rosie Frankowski of Anchorage (28:30.9) and ninth-place Kendall Kramer of Fairbanks (28:35.5). Kramer, a 17-year-old West Valley High senior, was the only skier younger than 18 in the top 15.

In the men’s 15K, Kyle Bratrud of Minnesota won in 36 minutes, 47.9 seconds for a 13-second edge over Schumacher.

Schumacher’s time of 37:00.2 put him 22 seconds ahead of Bjornsen and Ian Torchia of Vermont, who both clocked 37:22.2 in the interval-start race.

Two more Anchorage skiers cracked the top 10 — sixth-place Zanden McMullen (37:42.6) and seventh-place Tyler Kornfield (37:46.3).

The medal is the second in as many days for Schumacher, the 19-year-old who has dominated U.S. junior skiing for the last few seasons. He had a couple of top-10 finishes at the national championships in previous years but had never won a senior-level medal until this week.