Completed Event: Skiing versus 20K Freestyle (M) on March 14, 2026 , , 1st
Final Score
Skiing
1st
vs 20K Freestyle (M)
The University of Utah Athletics
Saturday, March 14
Midway, Utah / Soldier Hollow Nordic Center
8:30 a.m.
University of Utah
vs
20K Freestyle (M)
Photo by: Evan Sosnowski/Utah Athletics
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! Utah Ski Team Wins 2026 NCAA Title
3/14/2026 11:31 AM | Skiing
Utes win 18th national championship in program history
MIDWAY, Utah – The Utah Ski Team won its 18th national title in program history on Saturday as the 2026 NCAA Skiing Championships wrapped up with 20K freestyle mass start races at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center.
Utah has now won back-to-back NCAA Championships and six of the last seven titles. All-time, 17 of the Utes' championship victories are under the NCAA umbrella; the 18th was an AIAW victory in 1978 when women's championships weren't yet sponsored by the NCAA.
The four-day meet began with giant slalom on Wednesday and was followed up with 7.5K classic interval starts (Thursday) and slalom (Friday) prior to today's mass starts. Alpine races took place at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center at the Utah Olympic Park.
When all was said and done, Utah tallied 549.5 points for the meet, edging out Colorado (539) by 10.5 points. It was a back-and-forth meet the entire week that saw the Buffaloes jump out to a four-point lead after giant slalom before Utah found itself ahead by 11.5 points at the halfway point with 7.5K classic races in the books. CU used a strong day in slalom to build a cushion of 6.5 points coming into today's mass starts.
Utah's final day of competition Saturday was highlighted by an individual NCAA championship for Mons Melbye in the men's 20K freestyle, the 91st individual title in program history.
Erica Lavén took the bronze medal in the women's race and Witta Walcher put down her second straight top-five as the Utah trio of Lavén, Melbye and Walcher all earned first-team All-America honors. Zachary Jayne contributed a ninth-place men's result as well for second-team laurels.
Overall, Utah racked up 15 All-American citations and 10 first-team nods—both the most of any team at the meet.
"It's been a rollercoaster," said director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt. "We were leading after two days and then we were second again, and coming into today we knew it was going to be a dogfight. Colorado is very, very strong, and it was between us and them. As you could see in the race, halfway through both men's and women's races we were in second place. I think the team made an incredible effort today to pick it up and finish higher up than they were skiing most of the race. Just an unbelievable day."
The spectator turnout was outstanding each day and grew as the week went on. The races playing out here was a late adjustment, as Montana State was originally scheduled to be the host for NCAAs. Despite best efforts from staff planning the meet in Montana, snow totals just didn't pan out this winter which led to a decision in mid-February to relocate the championships. Thanks to countless individuals both at the University of Utah and externally, the Utes were able to step in as host and welcome the collegiate skiing world for the meet.
"To put this together in three weeks is just unbelievable," said Landstedt. "You normally have a year or two to work on the championship, and for the university and athletics department, and then of course Soldier Hollow really stepped up and did awesome work here. Josh (Korn) did an incredible job out here, and then at the Utah Olympic Park as well, they just took it and within a week they were ready to go. It's unbelievable to have the support that we have here in Utah to do this."
Utah is scheduled to host the NCAA Championship meet again in 2028.
Utah has now won six team championships in eight seasons under Landstedt. Head alpine coach JJ Johnson has been on staff for all six of those titles, while assistant alpine coach Mary Joyce has helped the Utes to five national crowns. Head Nordic coach Pierre Niess has tutored Utah to titles in both of his seasons in Salt Lake City.
Women's Race
Erica Lavén took the bronze medal (52:22.7) in the women's race and was followed close behind by Witta Walcher (52:24.0) in fifth place. Sofia Pedersen (55:44.9) tabbed 24th to total 70 points for the Utes across the board for the women.
"The women had unbelievably good skis, so they could kind of hang back a little bit and catch up or glide past people on the downhills," Landstedt said. "Erica and Witta were in the big group fighting for second to seventh place, and that's where the big points are. Then finishing up there really helped our scoring for the day. And then Sofia was really fighting and doing her best and finishing in the 20s, so she scored some valuable points as well."
Lavén wore bib 4 for Utah in the five-lane mass start, being joined by Pedersen in bib 9 and Walcher in bib 19. Though Rosie Fordham of Alaska Fairbanks built a sizeable lead in the first two laps, Lavén and Walcher remained in the first chase group and were in a top-seven that was separated by less than three seconds after the opening trip around the course.
Lavén never fell below third at any of the splits and Walcher got as high as second place through six laps. Lavén won the seventh lap with a time of 6:33.7 as she and Walcher made their push toward the home stretch. As the athletes came back into the race stadium and over the bridge toward the finish corral, the duo battled it out with Vermont's Haley Brewster and Ava Thurston of Dartmouth—all separated by less than two seconds in the Nos. 2-5 spots in the final results.
"I'm very happy and I'm very proud of this team," Lavén said. "I feel like we've been working hard to come to this point, and I feel like everybody is happy for it."
Fordham ran away with the race and clocked a final time of 51:54.6 for a cushion of almost 28 seconds. It gave Fordham a sweep both the women's classic and freestyle races.
The women's race results put Utah back in front of the team standings by a slight margin, but the Utes still needed solid performances in the men's competition to lock up the overall championship.
Men's Race
The men's 20K was a battle for much of, if not the entire, race as the top 14 athletes through seven laps were separated by 4.9 seconds.
Mons Melbye (bib 1), Zachary Jayne (bib 7) and Max Kluck (bib 39) took the course for Utah, again in a five-lane start. Though Melbye fell to fifth at the halfway point of the race and ninth after five laps, he was never more than 3.5 seconds off the leader. That left him in good position to hit the gas pedal on the sixth lap as Melbye won that lap and moved into the lead. He went toe-to-toe with Dartmouth's John Steel Hagenbuch—the classic winner on Thursday and a three-time NCAA champion—ultimately edging Hagenbuch by 0.4 seconds for the victory.
Melbye clocked a final time of 46:14.6, with Jayne finishing ninth (46:28.7) and Kluck 22nd (49:13.7).
"I'm glad to be part of this team, and winning, just doing my part," said Melbye. "Today was the first race of the season that I really felt some pressure because we were tight with another school. But we ended up on top and I'm super happy to do my part of the team effort.
He continued, "There were a lot of pace-setters in the group, so I didn't have to do as much. I just stuck with the pack and sprinted in the finish. That worked out well. I promised some of the alpine guys that if (John Steel Hagenbuch) was going to try to get rid of me I would stick with him. And if I was going to stick to the back of his heels until the final hill it was over for him, and I held my word, so I'm happy with that."
Right in the mix was Jayne, keeping within about five seconds for much of the second half. He finished ninth but was in the first pack that immediately trailed Melbye and Hagenbuch.
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Get your gear to commemorate the Utah Ski Team's 18th national championship in program history!
Click here to share the bragging rights with your own piece of merchandise.
Follow the Utah Ski Team
Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam. Download the Utah 360 app here.
Utah has now won back-to-back NCAA Championships and six of the last seven titles. All-time, 17 of the Utes' championship victories are under the NCAA umbrella; the 18th was an AIAW victory in 1978 when women's championships weren't yet sponsored by the NCAA.
The four-day meet began with giant slalom on Wednesday and was followed up with 7.5K classic interval starts (Thursday) and slalom (Friday) prior to today's mass starts. Alpine races took place at the Spencer F. Eccles Olympic Mountain Center at the Utah Olympic Park.
When all was said and done, Utah tallied 549.5 points for the meet, edging out Colorado (539) by 10.5 points. It was a back-and-forth meet the entire week that saw the Buffaloes jump out to a four-point lead after giant slalom before Utah found itself ahead by 11.5 points at the halfway point with 7.5K classic races in the books. CU used a strong day in slalom to build a cushion of 6.5 points coming into today's mass starts.
Utah's final day of competition Saturday was highlighted by an individual NCAA championship for Mons Melbye in the men's 20K freestyle, the 91st individual title in program history.
Erica Lavén took the bronze medal in the women's race and Witta Walcher put down her second straight top-five as the Utah trio of Lavén, Melbye and Walcher all earned first-team All-America honors. Zachary Jayne contributed a ninth-place men's result as well for second-team laurels.
Overall, Utah racked up 15 All-American citations and 10 first-team nods—both the most of any team at the meet.
"It's been a rollercoaster," said director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt. "We were leading after two days and then we were second again, and coming into today we knew it was going to be a dogfight. Colorado is very, very strong, and it was between us and them. As you could see in the race, halfway through both men's and women's races we were in second place. I think the team made an incredible effort today to pick it up and finish higher up than they were skiing most of the race. Just an unbelievable day."
The spectator turnout was outstanding each day and grew as the week went on. The races playing out here was a late adjustment, as Montana State was originally scheduled to be the host for NCAAs. Despite best efforts from staff planning the meet in Montana, snow totals just didn't pan out this winter which led to a decision in mid-February to relocate the championships. Thanks to countless individuals both at the University of Utah and externally, the Utes were able to step in as host and welcome the collegiate skiing world for the meet.
"To put this together in three weeks is just unbelievable," said Landstedt. "You normally have a year or two to work on the championship, and for the university and athletics department, and then of course Soldier Hollow really stepped up and did awesome work here. Josh (Korn) did an incredible job out here, and then at the Utah Olympic Park as well, they just took it and within a week they were ready to go. It's unbelievable to have the support that we have here in Utah to do this."
Utah is scheduled to host the NCAA Championship meet again in 2028.
Utah has now won six team championships in eight seasons under Landstedt. Head alpine coach JJ Johnson has been on staff for all six of those titles, while assistant alpine coach Mary Joyce has helped the Utes to five national crowns. Head Nordic coach Pierre Niess has tutored Utah to titles in both of his seasons in Salt Lake City.
Women's Race
Erica Lavén took the bronze medal (52:22.7) in the women's race and was followed close behind by Witta Walcher (52:24.0) in fifth place. Sofia Pedersen (55:44.9) tabbed 24th to total 70 points for the Utes across the board for the women.
"The women had unbelievably good skis, so they could kind of hang back a little bit and catch up or glide past people on the downhills," Landstedt said. "Erica and Witta were in the big group fighting for second to seventh place, and that's where the big points are. Then finishing up there really helped our scoring for the day. And then Sofia was really fighting and doing her best and finishing in the 20s, so she scored some valuable points as well."
Lavén wore bib 4 for Utah in the five-lane mass start, being joined by Pedersen in bib 9 and Walcher in bib 19. Though Rosie Fordham of Alaska Fairbanks built a sizeable lead in the first two laps, Lavén and Walcher remained in the first chase group and were in a top-seven that was separated by less than three seconds after the opening trip around the course.
Lavén never fell below third at any of the splits and Walcher got as high as second place through six laps. Lavén won the seventh lap with a time of 6:33.7 as she and Walcher made their push toward the home stretch. As the athletes came back into the race stadium and over the bridge toward the finish corral, the duo battled it out with Vermont's Haley Brewster and Ava Thurston of Dartmouth—all separated by less than two seconds in the Nos. 2-5 spots in the final results.
"I'm very happy and I'm very proud of this team," Lavén said. "I feel like we've been working hard to come to this point, and I feel like everybody is happy for it."
Fordham ran away with the race and clocked a final time of 51:54.6 for a cushion of almost 28 seconds. It gave Fordham a sweep both the women's classic and freestyle races.
The women's race results put Utah back in front of the team standings by a slight margin, but the Utes still needed solid performances in the men's competition to lock up the overall championship.
Men's Race
The men's 20K was a battle for much of, if not the entire, race as the top 14 athletes through seven laps were separated by 4.9 seconds.
Mons Melbye (bib 1), Zachary Jayne (bib 7) and Max Kluck (bib 39) took the course for Utah, again in a five-lane start. Though Melbye fell to fifth at the halfway point of the race and ninth after five laps, he was never more than 3.5 seconds off the leader. That left him in good position to hit the gas pedal on the sixth lap as Melbye won that lap and moved into the lead. He went toe-to-toe with Dartmouth's John Steel Hagenbuch—the classic winner on Thursday and a three-time NCAA champion—ultimately edging Hagenbuch by 0.4 seconds for the victory.
Melbye clocked a final time of 46:14.6, with Jayne finishing ninth (46:28.7) and Kluck 22nd (49:13.7).
"I'm glad to be part of this team, and winning, just doing my part," said Melbye. "Today was the first race of the season that I really felt some pressure because we were tight with another school. But we ended up on top and I'm super happy to do my part of the team effort.
He continued, "There were a lot of pace-setters in the group, so I didn't have to do as much. I just stuck with the pack and sprinted in the finish. That worked out well. I promised some of the alpine guys that if (John Steel Hagenbuch) was going to try to get rid of me I would stick with him. And if I was going to stick to the back of his heels until the final hill it was over for him, and I held my word, so I'm happy with that."
Right in the mix was Jayne, keeping within about five seconds for much of the second half. He finished ninth but was in the first pack that immediately trailed Melbye and Hagenbuch.
Buy Championship Merchandise!
Get your gear to commemorate the Utah Ski Team's 18th national championship in program history!
Click here to share the bragging rights with your own piece of merchandise.
Follow the Utah Ski Team
Follow the Utah Ski Team on social media @utahskiteam. Download the Utah 360 app here.
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