Soldotna senior Ariana Cannava, Soldotna junior Tania Boonstra and Kenai Central junior Chase Laker competed Wednesday in the second day of the 2025 Junior Nationals at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Utah.

The second day featured freestyle sprints. In that format, all skiers do a qualifying run. The top 30 skiers in each age group advance to quarterfinal, head-to-head matchups.

In Under-20 women, Cannava took 23rd at 3:12.20 to qualify for the quarterfinals.

There are actually five quarterfinals. The top two from each quarterfinal advance to the semifinals. There also are two “lucky loser” spots in the quarterfinal for the duo that doesn’t automatically qualify, but has the top two times of the nonqualifiers.

Cannava competed in the fifth quarterfinal and took fourth at 3:51.67. She did not qualify as a lucky loser.

Skiers used the same 1.3-kilometer course in the qualifier and in the races, but race times were much slower. The qualifiers were held from 9 to 11:15 a.m.

The races started at 11:45 a.m., but the last was scheduled for 5:05 p.m. The temperature at 9 a.m. was 44 degrees. By 4 p.m., the temperature was 57 degrees.

Boonstra and Laker did not qualify into the quarterfinals.

In Under-18 girls, Boonstra was 46th in qualifying at 3 minutes, 5.54 seconds. The 30th qualifier had a time of 3:00.72. There were 101 skiers in the qualifier.

In Under-18 boys, Laker was 58th in 2:38.97. The 30th qualifier was at 2:33.31. There were 92 skiers in the qualifier.

Junior Nationals concludes with a freestyle mass start Friday and a mixed classic relay Saturday.

Cannava’s effort got Team Alaska 5 points Wednesday, which turned out to be important. In the race for the Alaska Cup, Team Alaska is tied with Intermountain with 529 points after two races.