Girls U-20: Britta Johnson Dominates on Home Turf

• Britta Johnson won the U-20 girls race in 1:06:33 (10:43/mi), finishing 3:50 clear of runner-up Aili Scott.
• Johnson posted the 8th-fastest women's split on the Snow King→Finish segment — the strongest closing leg in the U-20 girls field.
• The top three were separated by just 5:13, while a gap of over 8 minutes opened between 3rd and 4th place.
• All six finishers were 18 years old, making this one of the most age-consistent fields on the day.

Britta Johnson, racing practically in her backyard from Carnelian Bay, CA, put together a commanding performance at altitude in Olympic Valley — holding 9th among all women from checkpoint to finish and never relinquishing that position. Her 10:43/mi average across a course ranging up to nearly 8,000 feet above sea level tells its own story about the effort required, and her closing split on Snow King→Finish was the sharpest in the U-20 field by a clear margin.

Aili Scott of Truckee — another local — crossed in 1:10:23 to claim second, with the 10th-fastest women's closing split. Niki Johnson (no relation to Britta, though both hail from Carnelian Bay) rounded out the podium in 1:11:46, just 1:23 behind Scott. Those two traded blows through the final segment, with Scott holding a two-position edge on the closing leg, but the gap at the line was tight enough to keep things interesting.

Behind the podium, Hannah Fendler made the most notable move of the race — climbing from 28th to 26th among women on the closing segment with the 23rd-fastest women's split on that stretch, finishing in 1:20:09. Summer Roleson (1:31:06) and Juliana Fulton (1:32:51) rounded out the six-finisher field, separated by under two minutes at the back of the pack.