By Peter Minde
MT VAN HOEVENBERG, Lake Placid — Late Friday afternoon, Julia Kern and Ben Ogden, both of Stratton Mountain School (SMS), topped the podium as 2025 national skate sprint champions at Mount van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, New York.
When a writer can drive 15 miles from his house to the venue with the sunroof open, you know that spring is here. Before the race, it was mainly sunny with a few clouds. The temperature was 39 degrees. The course was softer than on Wednesday, with frozen granular snow the order of the day. While salt was applied here and there, your correspondent heard that some coaches didn’t want salt applied at all: let the juniors learn how to ski in spring conditions. This is unconfirmed.
During warmups, skiers dropped aggressively into the big descent by the lodge, looking for the best line. One is probably safer at the Indy 500 than here, with skiers coming within millimeters of the V-boards.
Jessie Diggins in the qual (all photos: Peter Minde)
Eighty-one women and 102 men went out, one at a time, in the qualifying round. Both the men’s and women’s fields featured a murderers’ row of top athletes. Elite skiers had the early start times. The strongest skiers V2ed or jump-skated up the first hill. Some chose to power through the slop on the best line, while others went outside the line for firmer snow.
The race distance, 1300 meters, would be considered a middle distance event in track and field. It’s impressive how quickly the field could recover from qualifying and move into the heats.
Women’s race: Kern and Diggins strong all day, with Kern ultimately taking the win
As one might expect, the usual suspects dominated the rounds. Jessie Diggins, of SMS, handily won her semi and quarterfinal rounds, as did club teammate Julia Kern.
The women’s final ended up as Diggins and Kern of SMS, Kate Oldham of Montana State University, Erin Bianco of Bridger Ski Foundation, Erica Lavén of the University of Utah, and Mariel Merlii Pulles of Team Birkie. These are precisely the six athletes who had the top six times in the qualifying round. Mostly chalk out there on Friday.
Diggins established clear leads in both of her first two heats, winning handily. While she led at the start in the final, the pack was tightly grouped together. Coming into the stadium from the final descent, Kern led Diggins by a few meters before the final corner. In the finish straight, Diggins closed, but ran out of real estate. Advantage Kern, by a healthy 1.59 seconds. Both Kern and Diggins were smiling as they crossed the line. Erica Lavén finished third, over six seconds behind Diggins.
Julia Kern on the race, which added another national title to what is becoming a not short list for the 27-year-old:
“It’s just really fun to be back in the Eastern ski community, back in the U.S. racing on home soil,” Kern said. “There’s so many people cheering out there today. It was just a hard-fought battle today.”
On her race plan, Kern said, “Originally, I was thinking maybe trying to draft and slingshot, but then I decided the hill was my strength and just tried to go from the gun. I was doing so strong in the start, once I hit the hill, I figured I’d try to make a gap there. … The [big hill] definitely is [the crux of the course] if you can make a gap. Otherwise, it’s quite tactical into the finish with the downhill, but given the deep slush, maybe less of a slingshot than on a firm day.”
On conditions for the next two races, with the forecast calling for a little bit of snow followed by rain and/or freezing rain:
“It’s springtime skiing, and we’ve been racing in these exact conditions the last five, six weeks on World Cup. It’s starting to feel pretty comfortable and familiar, and I think it’s challenging, but I don’t know, I love a good klister day. I love a good sloppy day. That’s just New England skiing for you.”
Diggins leads her semifinal heat
Jessie Diggins last raced in this country — okay last February in the Loppet Cup and the Birkie, obviously. But before that, it’s been ages: seven full years, since Spring Series down the road at Craftsbury in 2018. She did do two races at Spring Series in 2022, though that was in Whistler.
Here’s Diggins:
“It’s been a long season, but I’m so excited to be here with my club. And it was just really fun to be out here doing this with everyone. And there’s so many little kids here who are cheering and excited, here after school with their club. And I feel like that’s really the vibe of Spring Series, just the community aspect and just getting to be with your team. I think that’s the most fun. So I’ve just been really enjoying just having this chance to just be with my club.”
It was cool to see both you and Julia smiling across the finish, a reporter observed.
“I’m so proud to get to do that with her,” Diggins said. “We train so much together and we’re such good friends and teammates. It’s one of those things where you’re supposed to want to win, but also you’re so happy for someone else at the exact same time.”
“And I am just thrilled,” she continued, “and also it was really impressive how in really sunny March conditions all the organizers have pulled this off. I really appreciate that. It’s not a small amount of work, especially after a long winter and the fact that they are just so passionate about, ‘All right, we’re gonna get this going and make such a nice course in tricky conditions.’ That’s very much appreciated.”
Did you have a plan for how you wanted to do the heats?
“Honestly, no, I didn’t.”
Erica Lavén’s thoughts on the day: “It was tough conditions but it was really fun to race. It went pretty good. My plan was always to try to see how every heat ended up from the start. I didn’t have a certain plan but I kept on going as hard as I could. That was the only thing I could do. I think it was all the slush that was out there, it was hard knowing where the snow was deep and you didn’t really know how to ski the course.”
Men’s race: Ogden and Schumacher dominate the afternoon, with Ogden coming out ahead to claim his first career national championship
The men’s heats had a similar vibe, with a bit more drama. Ben Ogden of SMS and Gus Schumacher of APU dominated their heats. Jack Young of Craftsbury, another favorite on the day, fell at the start of his quarterfinal but recovered to finish second behind Owen Young of the University of Vermont. Young would end up finishing fourth overall in the final, third on the domestic podium.
As with the women’s final, the men’s final was stacked with top skiers: Ogden, Schumacher, Jack Young, Murphy Kimball of Alaska Winter Stars, Kristoffer Alm Karsrud of Northern Michigan University, and Xavier McKeever of Alberta World Cup Academy. The slowest man here had placed 12th in the qual a few hours prior.
Ogden led from the start of the final, but it wasn’t easy. The group stayed together all around the loop. Coming down from the high point, they were all together going into the last corner. It was a drag race to the finish, with Ogden nipping Schumacher by 0.36 seconds. McKeever came third, 1.45 seconds behind Schumacher. Young was 0.17 seconds behind McKeever.
Ogden, front, leads Schumacher and Young
Quotes from the men’s sprint.
Ben Ogden: “It was a ton of fun. It’s a hard course, good preview for the World Cup next year, but nice and slushy. … Spring skiing, so I had fun.
“My plan was to really try and ski it like it was a World Cup, and ski in a way that gives me the most energy late in the race. So I figured the way to do it was to lead on the twisty turny early bit, and then allow some people to pass me on the hill if need be, save some energy, and then come in second down this hill, or third, and try and get around and get in front for the finish. That way I could kind of come to the final with the most energy, which worked for the most part, and, you know, ended up working out.
“That was my plan, and hopefully I can learn something and utilize it for the World Cup next year.”
Gus Schumacher: “It was really good. Pretty soft. Good practice for wet conditions. But always fun to race at home and race against a bunch of my teammates, people I’ve known for a really long time.”
On his race strategy against a field perhaps somewhat slower than the World Cup, Schumacher said, “I think it was a good time to practice not just going all out, basically. The pace is a little lower here, so it was nice to play with being in different spots in the pack and trying to go through from a different spot.”
On racing after travel across multiple time zones, Schumacher said, “Travel is definitely a part of the skier life. It’s nice to feel like I’m in the home stretch and back on home soil in the U.S. It’s really nice to enjoy being back in the U.S. and celebrating the end of the season.”
The men’s final was a tight pack all the way around the loop.
“The final is the best skiers out there,” noted Schumacher. “They were able to hold the pace pretty well. It wasn’t a super hot pace for the whole final. I don’t think me and Ben were in the front. Neither one wanted to lead over the top. There wasn’t space for anyone else to go through, so it was just us dictating it.
“I feel like I’m a more patient person than Ben. I felt like he was probably going to go, and he eventually did. He skied off the top well and skied the downhill well. I wasn’t able to come around on the flat, so I just followed him. Once you got into the corner, there was just one line. If you went wide, it was just softer. It was really hard to go around anyone.”
Racing continued today with the mixed-gender 4 x 5-kilometer relay, which, spoiler alert, saw all of Kern, Ogden, and Diggins stand atop the podium once more, this time as part of the winning SMS T2 team. Lavén and McKeever also found the podium again, Lavén with the second-place University of Utah team and McKeever with the third place Alberta World Cup Academy squad.
More photos: John Steel Hagenbuch leads his heat; women’s heats; Ben Ogden signs an autograph for a young fan
Results: men’s heats | women’s heats | men’s qual | women’s qual
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