RUMFORD — Jessica Diggins has already proven she can fall down in the finals of one of the biggest ski races of the year and win.

She did it last year at the U.S. Cross Country Championships at Black Mountain of Maine.

A year later, on the same course, she wasn't going to take any chances.

"I was playing with tactics a bit," Diggins said. "It was a fast, icy day, so I was playing with the final hill as a slingshot. In the final, I just decided to get out and get a gap. It didn't really work, it was a risky move and I ended up being drafted, but if you don't take risks, you don't know what's going to happen."

Diggins, originally from Minnesota and a member of the U.S. Ski Team, won the preliminary race, placed first in her quarterfinal and again in her semifinal before bolting out ahead of the field and holding on in the finals to claim her second consecutive national crown in the freestyle sprint competition.

"Last year, I got tripped and fell over at the top of the really big hill," Diggins said. "I didn't want to do that again, I didn't want to risk it, so I got out front. It was tough into the wind, and it definitely sapped some energy, but I think it was worth it to avoid any possible pole or ski tangles."

Diggins edged Caitlin Gregg, the No. 2 qualifier and a CXC teammate, and Jennie Bender made it a clean sweep for CXC in third place. Bender had a shot at the title, too, but tripped and fell on the final sprint and stumbled across the line for bronze.

"She's my teammate, my roommate and one of my best friends," Diggins said. "We train all year together, we race, we travel.

"Honestly, I don't know how it would have ended up, it was so close," she added. "It probably would have come down to a lunge at the end. That's just tough. You want to win because you're fast, not because someone trips. I kind of wish we could do that over again."

The women's sprint event at the U.S. Cross Country Championships was contested on a 1.4-kilometer loop at Black Mountain, on a track of man-made snow. More than 150 skiers toed the line, with the top 30 advancing into the quarterfinal heats. Twelve skiers advanced into a pair of semifinals, with the top six making it through to the final.

Clare Egan, formerly of Cape Elizabeth High School, and Bethann Chamberlain of Caribou made the field of 30, but failed to advance into the semifinals. Egan missed by one position.

In the junior women's race, Carly Wynn of Queensbury, N.Y., took home the victory after qualifying last. The Dartmouth College racer snuck into the field in qualifying, placed second in her quarterfinal and third in her semifinal before overtaking the other five finalists in the race that mattered the most.

Familiar face

Those people even casually observing the Nordic skiing world shouldn't be surprised by the name atop the men's podium in Tuesday's men's 1.6-kilometer sprint.

Torin Koos, who used an unsuccessful trip to Black Mountain nearly 10 years ago as a motivational tool, has now swept the three most recent sprint races at the venue, tacking on a win Tuesday to the pair he earned last year.

"The last three trips here have treated me kindly," Koos said. "I've found a way to win here. That's all you can ask for."

Koos qualified sixth in the morning session, only two seconds back of the top qualifier, Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess.

"Today was a lot about energy management," Koos said. "These sprints are a long day. I would have for sure liked to win the qualifier, but I didn't even test my skis this morning on the course, I just jogged. I was bummed a bit. I was sixth or seventh, but then I saw I was only two seconds back, I was like, 'Oh my gosh.' That was totally on the feel of what I knew I had missed out on by not warming up on skis."

When Black Mountain hosted nationals in 2003 and 2004, Koos didn't fare so well.

"It's a course where there's a high point and you come down into the finish, so you have to learn how to win a race from a downhill into ... this is a long finishing straight here, but it's so fast," Koos said. "You have to learn how to put the power down onto the poles and into the skis and move really well.

"I didn't know how to do that (in 2003 and 2004)," he continued. "When I heard it was coming back to Rumford again last year, I said, 'I don't know how to win on this course, but I think I know what I have to get better at."

Joining Koos and Blackhorse-von Jess on the podium in third was Tyler Kornfield of the University of Alaska.

Bates College skier Jordan Buetow of Fairbanks, Alaska, made it into the field of 30, but missed moving into the semifinals by one place. The fact that he was able to compete at all, and so close to his adopted home, made the event that much more special, though.

"It really is convenient to sleep in our own bed, being able to cook at the coach's house," Buetow said. "There's a lot to be said for that sort of thing at a big race like this."

In the junior men's race, Austin Cobb of Middlebury College pulled off the same feat as Wynn's triumph in the junior women's race. The 24th and final qualifier, Cobb was the final racer to earn a place in the semifinals, and was the third and final skier to get through from that semifinal before edging NESCAC foe Will Wicherski of Williams College in the junior men's final.

Weather or not

From an almost non-existent course to perfect racing in less than 24 hours? It's Maine, of course it can happen.

As skiers crawled out of bed Monday for the scheduled first day of competition, race officials were making the declaration they'd feared the most: No skiing Monday.

"We were getting ready and we got the message, and I was like, 'Uh-oh,'" Diggins said. "What can you do? There's nothing we could do but wait."

And wait everyone did, buoyed by the promise of a powerful cold front moving through the region.

What they all got was a shock to their systems, as highs in the Rumford region struggled to hit 15 degrees above zero.

"It's been an incredible change of weather over 24 hours," Koos said. "I'm trying to think of another time, in any other ski race ... I don't think I've ever seen such a profound change on a course at a race, just the general conditions to go from 40 to zero degrees in the morning."

The change in weather helped snow-making efforts, and made the course much more competitive for all of the racers, top to bottom.

"It was a lot different than (Monday), when we were supposed to have the race," Buetow said. "It all hardened up and the conditions were very fast today. As a result, things are super tight, people are really close together out there."

Racing resumes Wednesday with the Adaptive Sit Ski races in the morning, followed by an open course for training in the afternoon. The 10K women's freestyle race and the 15K men's freestyle race are slated for Thursday, with the women's 20K and men's 30K classical events set for Friday.