Craftsbury Common, VT – Overall World Cup sprint champion Kikkan Randall proved dominance in her repertoire of disciplines as she won the 30k U.S. Championship in Craftsbury Common on Friday.

The win marks Randall’s 17th U.S. Championship title and comes as ending punctuation of the most successful season in history for the U.S. Ski Team women, six of whom earned World Cup points including two wins and seven podiums for Randall, of Anchorage, Alaska.

Teammate Jessie Diggins, of Afton, Minn., was a mere 1.1 seconds behind Randall at the end of 20 laps around a 1.5k course. Vermont local Liz Stephen was third.

“The race ended up being pretty fast from the start,” said Randall. “Liz (Stephen) pushed the pace going up the main climb on the first lap and continued to keep the pace high up the climb on every lap. We traded places a few times but Liz and Jessie (Diggins) ended up doing most of the leading. Holly (Brooks) was with the group for the first half and I’m not really sure when she dropped off. With about six laps to go it was clear that it was a three person race. I took the lead with three laps to go but only held it for a lap or so. My quads started cramping pretty badly on those last three laps.”

Craftsbury organizers did an outstanding job of preserving a ribbon of snow to host the Championships while temperatures topped 80 degrees in the past weeks.

“For only a 1.5k loop, the course actually skied really well,” Randall added. “It seemed to have all the right elements: climbs, downhills, flats, etc. As we made our way around the course through the 20 laps, each lap of the course seemed to break down a little and some sections got pretty soft, slow and wet. I had never done such a long race on such a short lap so I had no idea what to expect.”