2025 Classic Marathon Results

2025 Women’s CL start. Photo - John Lazenby

A beautiful day for ski racing both weather wise and in terms of track conditions saw almost 300 racers toe the line to contest 15, 30 or 45k of classic skiing.

Women's CL 30k

1) Emily Linton - 1:52:00.2 - U18, Craftsbury Ski Club, Coventry, VT
2) Isabel Linton - 1:52:03.2 - U18, Craftsbury Ski Club, Coventry, VT
3) JoAnn Hanowski - 2:05:22.1 - M8, Rossignol, Greensboro, VT

Craftsbury Ski club twins Emily and Isabel Linton went 1-2 in the Women's 30k classic. They skied together much of the race, with a bit over 3 seconds separating them after 30k. Joann Hanowski used a well paced second lap - and the 3rd fastest second lap to Emily and Isabel - to move up from 7th after lap one to 3rd by the end.

Men's CL 30k

1) Dennis Page - 1:46:41.0 - M1, Nansen Ski Club, Plainfield, NH
2) John Sakalowsky - 1:50:05.3 - M5, Freedom Trail Nordic, Newton, MA
3) Frank Feist - 1:50:30.7 - M6, Ford Sayre, Lebanon, NH

Nansen Ski Club's Dennis Page led at both the lap and finishfor the men, taking the win by 3:24 at the line over John Sakalowsky and Frank Feist. Sakalowsky of Freedom Trail Nordic went through lap one in fourth, 2 seconds behind Feist but pulled that gap back plus another 25 seconds to grab silver from the Ford Sayre skier Feist at the finish.

Women's CL 45k

1) Jessie Donavan - 2:42:03.6 - M4, Green Mountain Valley School
2) Megan McTavish - 2:45:24.0 - M4, XC Ottawa, Chelsea, QC
3) Ingrid Thyr - 2:48:19.6 - SR - Pathletics Factory Team, Minneapolis, MN

In what is becoming a theme for the day: another race, another wire to wire lead. This time it was GMVS skier Jessie Donavan breaking the tape. Donavan shipped 2:20 between her first two laps, but only lost 16s between her 2nd and 3rd! Very impressive pacing, particularly in that 2nd placed McTavish was still within 10s of her at the end of lap 2. McTavish started conservatively, working her way into second by the end of the third lap but the metronomic pace of Donavan wore her down in the last lap.

Minnesotan Ingrid Thyr should be thankful that the last lap wasn't any longer as fourth placed Isabel Caldwell negative split her 3rd lap (2nd fastest last lap in the field to Donavan) ending within 12s of Thyr who needed all of her earlier lead to hold Caldwell off. We haven't been able to ascertain whether it was bonk, failing wax or one of the other myriad ways that XC ski marathons can go sideways which impacted Thyr's last lap. Whatever it was, Thyr's last lap time left the door ajar for a Caldwell podium, but Ingrid was able to dig in and hold her bronze.

Men's CL 45k

1) Edward Southward - 2:16:27.5 - SR, XC Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
2) James Kitch - 2:16:30.0 - SR, Harvard University Ski Team, Belmont, MA
3) Justin Freeman - 2:17:01.7 - M4, Hanover, NH

The closest race of the day was the men's 45k classic race. Winner Edward Southward did lead laps 1 and 2 in addition to taking the win, but had to work for it. Craftsbury Marathon mainstay Justin Freeman was hot on his heels thru lap 1 and 2, only slipping away in the third round of the course as he lost 34s on that last lap to Southward. However the joker on the podium was Harvard grad James Kitch who laid down the fastest times for both the 2nd and 3rd laps of the course, ending up 2.5 seconds behind Southward by the finish - only 0.03% slower - turning a long race into a a very thin margin by the end.

Find results for all categories on Bullitt Timing.

In addition to the images here, we'll be posting more of a gallery from John Lazenby as they are processed. Stay tuned for that.

And we look forward to welcoming all of you again tomorrow as most of today's field contests a 30k skate race