Led by Ari Endestad’s gold, Alaska skiers win 5 medals at Junior Nationals

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Team Alaska's Alexander Maurer from the Alaska Winter Stars double-poles through the finish chute on his way to a second place finish in the U18M 10-kilometer event during the classic technique interval start distance race at the 2020 Cross Country Skiing Junior Nationals Monday, March 9, 2020 at the Auburn Ski Club Training Center at Donner Summit, California. Racing continues with freestyle sprints on Wednesday, freestyle mass start distance on Friday, and classic relays on Saturday. (Photo by Eric Engman)

Alaska skiers collected five medals on the opening day of the U.S. Junior Cross Country Championships in Donner Summit, California.

They made the biggest haul in the men’s U20 race, where Alaskans grabbed the top four spots in the 10-kilometer classic race.

Leading the way was Ari Endestad of Fairbanks, who won the interval-start race in 26 minutes, 2.3 seconds. Everett Cason took silver (26:11.4), Kai Meyers won bronze (26:13.7) and Garrett Butts placed fourth (26:21.1). All four men are members of the Alaska Pacific University ski team.

Alaska Winter Stars skiers accounted for Alaska’s other medals. Alexander Maurer, the Skimeister at last month’s state high school ski championships, claimed silver in the 10K race for U18 men, and Aaron Power took the bronze in the 5K race for U16 boys.

Maurer finished 20 seconds behind winner Will Koch of Vermont (25:03) and Power was about 28 seconds behind U16 winner Wes Campbell of Utah (13:36). Maurer and Power were teammates on Service High’s state high school championship team.

The top Alaskans in the other races were Adrianna Proffitt of Alaska Nordic Racing, who placed fourth in the women’s U20 5K race; Garvie Tobin of APU, fifth in the women’s U18 5K; and Abigail Haas of Fairbanks FXC, who was ninth in the girls U16 5K.

Racing continues Wednesday in Donner Summit.

Find complete results here.