Hanneman Takes First Ever U.S. Title
SOLDIER HOLLOW, UT (Jan. 10) – Reese Hanneman (Anchorage; APU Nordic) took his career first title Friday, winning the classic sprint over APU teammate Erik Bjornsen (Winthrop, WA) at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow. Russian athlete Natalja Naryshkina (CXC Team) won the women's sprint, while Rosie Brennan (Park City, UT; APU Nordic) finished second and was awarded the title, her third medal of the week and her second career gold medal.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Reese Hanneman (Anchorage; APU Nordic) took his career first title Friday, winning the classic sprint over APU teammate Erik Bjornsen (Winthrop, WA) at the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow. It was Hanneman’s third medal of the week after a bronze and silver.
- Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Bend, OR; Bend Endurance) took bronze in Friday’s classic sprint.
- Russian athlete Natalja Naryshkina (CXC Team) won the women’s classic sprint, while Rosie Brennan (Park City, UT; APU Nordic) finished second and was awarded the title, her third medal of the week and her second career gold medal.
- Nichole Bathe (Madison, WI; University of Alaska) won the silver medal and Becca Rorabaugh (Fairbanks, AK; APU Nordic) took home bronze.
- Friday’s weather conditions were challenging for classic sprints with fresh snow and temperatures around freezing, which made kicking a challenge and waxing critical.
- The classic sprints closed the 2014 U.S. Cross Country Championships, which featured a week of competition at the 2002 Olympic venue at Soldier Hollow.
QUOTES
Reese Hanneman
I've made this week a focus of mine since this spring, so I’ve been working and training for this for a long time. It’s really nice to put it together. Kicking it off with that second place in the 15k was really inspiring and I knew that I was in good shape. So the rest of the week was just about keep that going and seeing what I could do.
The new snow made it a little interesting, but it was really nice that it stopped snowing so it ended up being a fair race. My wax techs and coaches did a really good job on my skis and they were amazing. I felt like it was all coming together, I felt great and I knew that if I pushed it harder than I ever had then I could have a day like this.
It was super fun to be here with my (APU) teammates. My team is what got me here, so it’s fun to be in the final with Erik and Tyler (Kornfield). APU had half the men’s A finals and Erik and I went one-two again in the classic race so it was a really fun day.
Rosie Brennan
This week actually started out horrible but got better each day, so I can’t complain. The waxing today was pretty important. I felt like I had incredible skis the whole time so I have to thank our techs for that. I was pretty nervous going into the heats with not having enough kick and when I got to that wall and I could just run. It was perfect. And then I had really fast skis in the downhill so I thought, ‘Well, it’s going to be a great day.’
Rosie Brennan
Born and raised in Park City, Utah, Rosie is a four-time U.S. champion, 2018 and 2022 Olympian, and ranked in the top-10 in the world for cross country skiing.
Rosie is one of the strongest and most dominant athletes on the World Cup circuit. As she enters her 10th year on the national team, she has over 225+ World Cup starts, 12 podiums and two victories, most recently landing on the podium in the Drammen City Sprint in Drammen, Norway. Even though she only started skiing when she was 14, her later-than-typical start never hindered her from finding success on the world stage.