MADISON, Wis. (Feb. 4) - Overall leader Garrott Kuzzy (Hayward, WI), who was ninth a week earlier in a World Cup race, won the final USSA Cross Country SuperTour sprint Sunday to clinch the men's championship. As the Capitol Square Sprints IV concluded, Kuzzy lengthened his overall lead against Leif Zimmermann (Bozeman, MT), who did not race.
Swiss skier Karin Camenisch, who raced for the University of Denver, finished fifth in the women's sprint, which was won by Kristina Strandberg of Sweden, a former University of New Mexico racer. But her showing was enough to give Camenisch to title, 196 to 191 for Czech Martina Stursova, another onetime New Mexico skier.
Lindsey Dehlin (Mahtomedi, MN) finished second in the sprint with Emily Nishikawa of Canada in third place. Lindsay Williams (Hastings, MN) was fourth.
Kuzzy, who skis for Team CXC and was ninth in the World Cup freestyle technique sprint Jan. 26 in Canmore, Alberta, topped Briann Gregg (Winthrop, WA) of Team CXC in the final sprint. Third place went to Anders Haugen (Anchorage, AK) with barton Dengel fourth.
The men's freestyle team sprint Saturday was won by James Southam (Anchorage, AK) and Anders Haugen (also Anchorage), teammates with the Alaska Pacific University Nordic program. The women's team champions were Camenisch and Stursova.
Saturday night, Kevin Hochtl (Vail, CO) and Camenisch won the U.S. 100-meter, a bid to establish a world speed record. Neither set a record, though.
The sprints, one of the top events each winter on the SuperTour lineup of races, drew about 35,000 spectators this time, organizer Yuriy Guzev said. The weekend total was triple the event's previous high mark.
"We worked hard towards building a strong spectator base and that was our goal this year," Gusev said. "An incredible amount of people all along the race course was a good measurement that we are working in the right direction."
Click here for Saturday FR team sprint results.
Click here for U.S. 100m record attempt result.
Click here for Sunday's CL sprint results.