Anchorage Cup runneth over with a high-quality field of cross-country ski racers

A crowd of 262 cross-country skiers turned out for the first Anchorage Cup race of the season Sunday at Kincaid Park, and the level of competition rivaled just about any U.S. domestic race short of the national championships.

The field included Olympians, World Cup veterans, World Junior Championship medalists, national champions and NCAA All-Americans.

Stealing the show was two-time Olympic skier Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, the Alaska Pacific University skier who ranked eighth in the world last season.

Bjornsen delayed the start of the current World Cup season to spend more time at home, and she made the most of a rare chance to race in Alaska -- she won the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle race by more than 90 seconds.

The women’s top five included three Olympians from APU (Bjornsen, second-place Rosie Frankowski and fifth-place Holly Brooks), a national champion (third-place Becca Rorabaugh of APU) and an NCAA All-American (fourth-place Anna Darnell of UAA).

The men’s race was much closer. Zanden McMullen, who skis for Montana State, claimed a 3.2-second win over Hunter Wonders of APU. Both men have competed at the World Junior Championships, and in 2018 Wonders was a member of the U.S. relay team that won a silver medal.

In the 5K race, Meredith Schwartz and Elias Soule took home victories. Schwartz won the girls race by 11 seconds, with Quincy Donley edging Marit Flora by three seconds for second place. Soule forged a 3.1-second win over Cole Flowers in the boys race..

With the 2020-21 national championships already canceled because of COVID-19, the results of Sunday’s race could factor into the selection of U.S. teams for the World Championships, World U-23 Championships and World Junior Championships, according to APU coach Erik Flora.

They “can be used to show the level athletes are racing,” he said. “Between the Anchorage Cup and the NSAA Solstice Race, those will be good data points for skiers in Anchorage.”

The Solstice Race is a two-day U.S. Ski & Snowboard event scheduled for Dec. 19-20 at Kincaid Park.

Men’s 10K freestyle

1) Zanden McMullen, 22:29.4;

2) Hunter Wonders, 22:32.6;

3) Kai Meyers, 22:42.0;

4) Sam Hendry, 23:03.5;

5) Thomas O’Harra, 23:09.1;

6) Luke Jager, 23:09.4;

7) Forrest Mahlen, 23:11.0;

8) Michael Earnhart, 23:13.4;

9) Ari Endestad, 24:01.8;

10) Garrett Butts, 24:08.2;

11) Zander Mauer, 24:13.7;

12) Peter Hinds, 24:14.4;

13) Joel Power, 24:46.3;

14) Espen Persen, 25:04.1;

15) Eli Hermanson, 25:17.7;

16) Aaron Power, 25:31.0;

17) Maxime Germain, 25:37.6;

18) Brent Lowen, 25:50.6;

19) Porter Blei, 25:52.2;

20) Seth Downs, 26:00.5;

21) Karl Danielson, 26:04.7;

22) Mark Eggener, 26:08.9;

23) Cody Priest, 26:41.4;

24) Miles Dennis, 26:42.7;

25) Ethan Eski, 26:45.4;

26) Hayden Ulbrich, 27:03.6;

27) Brandon Brewster, 27:03.8;

28) Jean Paquet, 27:04.4;

29) Russell O’Brien, 27:06.0;

30) Aaron Maves, 27:06.5;

31) Tor Christopherson, 27:15.1;

32) Christopher Clark, 27:32.4;

33) Noah Goltz, 27:34.0;

34) Nolan Miller, 27:41.1;

35) Andrew Kastning, 27:43.2;

36) Garrett Streit, 27:46.1;

37) Simeon Ramirez, 27:51.8;

38) Nick Jablonski, 27:52.6;

39) Allan Spangler, 28:01.7;

40) Will Mans, 28:04.0;

41) Ben Arians, 28:07.4;

42) Tanner Ramey, 28:26.2;

43) Cory Smith, 28:27.5;

44) Will Ross, 28:41.2;

45) Tyler Hippchen, 29:04.4;

46) Noah Rehberg, 29:21.7;

47) Troy Fritzel, 29:33.5;

48) Gary Snyder, 29:36.0;

49) Connor Scher, 30:12.5;

50) Nathan Berry, 30:16.6;

51) Eli Stierwalt, 31:16.9;

52) Rob Witter, 31:22.5;

53) Nathan Rehberg, 31:36.9;

54) Peter Marbarger, 31:38.1;

55) Randal Bladel, 31:58.7;

56) Garrett Timmerman, 32:22.3;

57) Doug Spurr, 33:09.8;

58) Dante Petri, 33:10.9;

59) Matthew Kam-Magruder, 33:37.1;

60) Davin Holen, 33:46.8;

61) Rick Rogers, 34:22.9;

62) Michael Clark, 34:33.3;

63) Mick Bakker, 34:45.9;

64) Bradley Cruz, 34:48.8;

65) John Weddleton, 35:09.3;

66) Art Copoulos, 35:56.9;

67) Cory Hinds, 36:11.3;

68) Frank Witmer, 37:06.7;

69) Mark Smith, 37:15.2;

70) David Ward, 37:17.1;

71) Raymond Koleser, 37:47.5;

72) Warren Metzger, 38:36.6;

73) Jeffrey Jablonski, 39:07.2;

74) Daniel Thorsness, 40:29.1;

75) Greg Dubois, 42:00.5;

76) James Williamson, 42:43.4;

77) Stefan Saldanha, 43:30.9;

78) John Power, 44:24.9;

79) Gunnar Knapp, 45:23.0;

80) Ben Stedman, 50:38.9.

Women’s 10K freestyle

1) Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen, 24:17.4;

2) Rosie Frankowski, 25:53.7;

3) Becca Rorabaugh, 26:20.5;

4) Anna Darnell, 26:49.0;

5) Holly Brooks, 28:31.2;

6) Helen Wilson, 28:45.3;

7) Alison Arians, 28:51.0;

8) Aubrey LeClair, 28:52.8;

9) Tuva Granøien, 29:35.9;

10) Ivy Eski, 29:50.9;

11) Garvee Tobin, 29:57.8;

12) Katey Houser, 30:31.3;

13) Emily Erickson, 31:40.4;

14) Adrianna Proffitt, 32:17.1;

15) Aurelie Barnel, 33:02.1;

16) Kari Fritzel, 35:03.0;

17) Sally Hokanson, 36:11.3;

18) Lydia Bushey, 36:40.7;

19) Ariana O’Harra, 36:46.0;

20) Cynthia Decker, 37:51.8;

21) Dorothy Childers, 38:10.5;

22) Erika Downs, 38:12.0;

23) Grace Miller, 38:13.4;

24) Carly Dennis, 38:16.4;

25) Teslin Thomas, 38:34.6;

26) Megan Rosier, 39:39.3;

27) Clare Ross, 39:40.0;

28) Joey Eski, 40:29.1;

29) Marilyn Sandford, 41:37.5;

30) Krista Bartz, 41:44.4;

31) Heidi Zimmer, 43:22.9;

32) June Takagi, 44:39.0;

33) Megan Soule, 45:55.1;

34) Joan Antonson, 49:30.1;

35) Emily Niebuhr, 1:20:42.0.

Men’s 5K freestyle

1) Elias Soule, 13:23.4;

2) Cole Flowers, 13:26.5;

3) Owen Young, 13:36.6;

4) Murphy Kimball, 13:37.7;

5) Owen Saltzman, 13:43.2;

6) Skyler Amy, 13:47.1;

7) Jacob Johnson, 13:56.6;

8) Blake Hanley, 13:59.0;

9) Justin Lucas, 14:02.6;

10) Cole Fritzel, 14:07.6;

11) Hatcher Menkens, 14:17.5;

12) Oliver Wright, 14:17.8;

13) Paul Hlasny, 14:19.0;

14) Finley Bold, 14:22.6;

15) Ben Thatcher, 14:29.6;

16) Ryan Maves, 14:34.2;

17) Eli Lammers, 14:39.7;

18) Dylan Autrey, 14:56.7;

19) Lars Robinson, 15:54.0;

20) Noa Kam-Magruder, 16:06.4;

21) Jevin Lim, 16:18.1;

22) Ben Goltz, 16:24.4;

23) Elias Oswald, 16:37.3;

24) Aaron Hippler, 16:44.9;

25) Vance Felton, 16:50.8;

26) Miles Numme-Worrell, 17:06.9;

27) Kaleigh Amundson, 17:31.7;

28) Walker Battreall, 17:33.4;

29) Thomas Erickson, 17:34.3;

30) Gino Graziano, 17:47.1;

31) Ian Autrey, 17:53.6;

32) Dan Young, 18:00.4;

33) Owen Johnson, 18:12.4;

34) Liam Cleary, 18:33.2;

35) Kyler Autrey, 19:09.0;

36) Kevin Downs, 19:30.5;

37) Quin Wuttke, 19:30.6;

38) Zac Cole, 19:41.5;

39) John Salsbury, 19:46.7;

40) Wayne Eski, 20:33.8;

41) Kellan Witter, 21:14.8;

42) Markus Kirchner, 21:52.6;

43) Sam Martich, 24:00.2;

44) Jo Maubet, 30:24.2;

45) Jeremiah Hassemer, 31:10.7;

46) Greg Stafford, 31:26.5;

47) Jon Steele, 32:24.2;

48) Luca Eski, 36:50.2.

Women’s 5K freestyle

1) Meredith Schwartz, 14:20.2;

2) Quincy Donley, 14:31.6;

3) Marit Flora, 14:34.6;

4) Tatum Witter, 14:45.6;

5) Lily Pannkuk, 15:16.4;

6) Sammy Legate, 15:18.1;

7) Neena Brubaker, 15:23.2;

8) Mina Hancock, 15:28.1;

9) Heidi Schumacher, 15:46.9;

10) Lucy Young, 15:53.0;

11) Robyn Miller, 16:12.0;

12) Kelsey Johannes, 16:15.4;

13) Piper Sears, 16:16.0;

14) Madeleine Reckmeyer, 16:18.3;

15) Kiley Dennis, 16:19.0;

16) Tarja Latva-Kiskola, 16:33.8;

17) Amaeli Kam-Magruder, 16:39.7;

18) Olivia Soderstrom, 16:55.0;

19) Hilary Nystrom, 16:59.4;

20) Brynn Rathert, 17:00.6;

21) Claire Rhyneer, 17:17.7;

22) Germaine Thomas, 17:20.0;

23) Maura Black, 17:38.1;

24) Anna Halsey, 17:46.0;

25) Ava Murphy, 18:19.5;

26) Sultana Noffsinger, 18:31.3;

27) Greta Bochenek, 18:51.0;

28) Lyra Bochenek, 19:10.8;

29) Nora Hulse, 19:27.4;

30) Linnea Gray, 19:58.5;

31) Georgia Thatcher, 20:07.3;

32) Briana Lowen, 20:35.7;

33) Alana Lim, 20:49.4;

34) Jessica Graziano, 20:58.5;

35) Libbey Gionet, 21:02.2;

36) Emily Taylor, 22:45.4;

37) Ashley Castillo, 22:58.2;

38) Ann Erickson, 23:19.9;

39) Cathy Wright, 23:30.4;

40) Lila Steele, 24:17.3;

41) Paula Taylor, 26:36.0;

42) Melodie Isgro, 44:43.4.

Boys 3K freestyle

1) Oskar Flora, 10:32.1;

2) Logan Cuddy, 10:58.7;

3) Hatcher Smith, 12:23.1;

4) Jack Leveque, 13:01.9;

5) Henry Chmielowski, 14:17.5;

6) Coal Flint, 14:33.9;

7) Dylan Amy, 14:39.5;

8) Nathan Chmielowski, 14:59.1;

9) Anders Armentrout, 16:03.6;

10) Clement Chlup, 16:07.4;

11) Axel Stone, 17:20.6;

12) Jack Zuspan, 18:22.3;

13) Leo Shephard, 18:31.1;

14) Zach Day, 19:01.4;

15) Austin Murphy, 19:22.3;

16) Liam Cuddy, 19:32.9;

17) Lance Smith, 20:41.4;

18) Taylor Salsbury, 22:07.0;

19) Eric Wuttke, 23:17.0;

20) Carl Saltzman, 23:18.9;

21) Lyle Jespersen, 24:51.5;

22) Oliver Rosier, 28:10.0;

23) Gus Inostroza, 30:35.2;

24) Henry Rosier, 34:29.8;

25) Kian Beck, 35:31.6;

26) Louis Rosier, 1:15:20.0.

Girls 3K freestyle

1) Merridy Littell, 13:44.7;

2) Reine Soule, 13:50.3;

3) Ilsa Robinson, 14:17.5;

4) Madelin Lowen, 14:19.2;

5) Miya Kam-Magruder, 14:27.1;

6) Brianna Gill Anderson, 14:48.7;

7) Teagan Halsey, 15:07.2;

8) Maya Tirpack, 15:16.4;

9) Sofie Chisholm, 15:19.0;

10) Elise Matthews, 15:45.4;

11) Talia Smith, 16:10.7;

12) Fiora Graziano, 16:17.8;

13) Calista Zuber, 16:27.1;

14) Adele Matthews, 16:43.5;

15) Sophie Kimball, 16:45.3;

16) Julia Oswald, 17:22.1;

17) Talia Day, 17:41.8;

18) Maryah Castillo, 17:43.7;

19) Sylvie Kastning, 18:59.4;

20) Jasmine Westley, 19:56.3;

21) Claire Saltzman, 20:30.7;

22) Holly Lowen, 20:39.3;

23) Naomi Smith, 21:10.5;

24) Heather Saltzman, 23:37.4;

25) Gretchen Wuttke, 23:47.0;

26) Grace Post, 24:37.2;

27) Teal Flint, 26:45.1;

28) Ella Weiss, 28:05.2;

29) Iris Matthews, 42:53.7;

30) Missy Matthews, 43:27.2;

31) Jessica Westley, 47:13.7.