Kenai Central senior Karl Danielson finished 13th in Wednesday’s freestyle sprint races for Under-20 men at Soldier Hollow, Utah, site of the 2018 Junior National nordic skiing championships.
Danielson qualified 28th, placing him in quarterfinal No. 2. Danielson finished third in his heat race, just .62 seconds behind the winner, but only the top two in each heat advance to the semifinal rounds, plus two “lucky losers” who have the next two fastest individual times, and Danielson didn’t make the cut.
Noel Keeffe of Steamboat Springs (Colorado) won the men’s final, while Hunter Wonders of Alaska Pacific University finished third as the top Alaskan.
In the women’s sprints, Kenai senior Addison Gibson qualified 71st out of 176 total female racers, and 42nd among Under-18 women qualifiers, not enough to make the cut for the heat races. Gibson was over four seconds behind 30th place for the cut.
After two days of racing, New England leads the Alaska Cup for region supremacy with 557 points, just six ahead of runner-up Rocky Mountain. Team Alaska sits third with 505.
After a rest day Thursday, racers will compete Friday in freestyle mass start races, ranging from 5 kilometers to 15K.
