By Gavin Kentch
This is a reader-funded website. Virtually all of my income (for perspective: I took home less than $5,000 from Nordic Insights last year after paying staff) comes from reader contributions, which I sincerely appreciate. If you would like to support the site, including helping us get to the Olympics in February, you may do so here. Thank you.
The overall podiums led Sunday’s coverage of the 10km classic races that kicked off 2026 U.S. Nationals, but those weren’t the only competitions going on yesterday. In addition to the athletes racing to qualify for future upcoming races (World Juniors/U23s/U18 trip points list here; Olympic qualification and Lake Placid nation’s group points list here), there were additional podiums for both the top three juniors and the top three skiers from each of the country’s NCAA ski conferences.
Junior men’s podium
First off, the only podium from yesterday for which I have a standalone photo, (two-thirds of) the junior men:
1st — Jack Leveque, Alaska Winter Stars
2nd — Grey Barbier, Montana State
3rd — Vebjorn Flagstad, Alaska Winter Stars
Junior women’s podium
1st — Neve Gerard, University of Utah
2nd — Ally Wheeler, University of Utah
3rd — Tula Higman, Bridger Ski Foundation
You can see the Utah portion of the junior women’s podium a bit farther below, in the post from the University of Utah embedded to illustrate the RMISA podium
EISA women’s podium
1st — Ava Thurston, Dartmouth
2nd — Emma Crum, Bowdoin
3rd — Shea Brams, Middlebury
EISA men’s podium
1st — John Steel Hagenbuch, Dartmouth
2nd — Tabor Greenberg, Vermont
3rd — Ruben Kretzschmar, Vermont
RMISA men’s podium
1st — Zach Jayne, Utah
2nd — Mons Melbye, Utah
3rd — Corbin Carpenter, Alaska Anchorage
RMISA women’s podium
1st — Erica Lavén, Utah
2nd — Tilde Bångman, Colorado
3rd — Rosie Fordham, Alaska Fairbanks
CCSA women’s podium
1st — Henriette Nilssen, Northern Michigan
2nd — Greta Hansen, Michigan Tech
3rd — Hannah Smart, Michigan Tech
CCSA men’s podium
1st — Wes Campbell, Michigan Tech
2nd — Luke Fricker, Northern Michigan
3rd — Markus Grøthe, Michigan Tech
Coach’s thoughts
Finally, I caught up with Greta Anderson, Development Coach for the U.S. Ski Team, after the close of the races on Sunday. Here are her thoughts on the day, with particular reference to the juniors fields, and on what it meant for U.S. skiing:
“After a morning of watching Jessie clinch another overall Tour de Ski title on SkiAndSnowboard Live, I am thrilled to see the size of these junior fields. We are growing — this is a record U.S. Nationals field for us, our largest in history.
“Our juniors were competitive amongst their peers in the fields today and I look forward to seeing the races folks can put together as the championship progresses this week.
“I was delighted to see Hailey Swirbul not only returning to the start list but also back on the podium, alongside her many time teammate at World Junior Championships, and now teammate at APUNSC, Novie McCabe. And also Hunter and Luke — who were juniors in the U.S. not so long ago — alongside Zachary Jayne and Sammy Smith, two of our up-and-coming U23 athletes.”
Racing continues at Mt van Hoevenberg tomorrow with a skate sprint. Full coverage may be found on this site throughout the week. Thanks for reading.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American skiing. We started with nothing and now we’re going to the Olympics. You can read more about our first three years here, and donate to the Olympics fund here. Thank you for consideration, and, especially, for reading.
