By Gavin Kentch
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The Alaskans took the qualifier, but Utah took the final, in Tuesday’s men’s skate sprint, the second day of racing at 2026 U.S. Nationals.
Mons Melbye, of the University of Utah, won the final, crossing the line in 2:45.82 after leading from start to finish. He was followed by Sasha Masson, of Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey, in second, and Utes teammate Zach Jayne in third. Jayne claimed the national championship as the first American athlete across the line.
Fourth through sixth in the final went to a trio of Alaskans: Ari Endestad, of APU; Michael Earnhart, of APU; and Owen Young, of the University of Vermont. Because Melbye is from Norway and Masson is from Canada, Endestad and Earnhart got the not-small consolation prize of standing second and third, respectively, on the domestic podium.
In the day’s other race-within-a-race, Zanden McMullen (APU) had the fastest time in qualifying, with Young second and Earnhart third. Cole Flowers (Alaska Fairbanks) was fifth and Murphy Kimball (Alaska Anchorage) eighth, as Alaskan men claimed five of the top seven domestic spots in qualifying.
The qual was World Cup–level tight, with just 5.44 seconds separating first from thirtieth, reflecting the depth of field today. All that said, this impressive performance is… maybe not gonna get McMullen too far vis-à-vis Olympic selection, unfortunately, given that the World Cup crew already has four men’s sprint spots spoken for, but this is also not McMullen’s fault. It will, however, help him to get back here for World Cup Finals in March.
Returning to the actual racing: Six men lined up for the final, which you can view in the really quite well done livestream below. The video below is cued up to start at 5:01:00, which is just before the start of the heat.
From viewer’s left to right, that’s Michael Earnhart (bib 3), Owen Young (bib 2), Sasha Masson (bib 11), Ari Endestad (bib 16), Mons Melbye (bib 4), and Zach Jayne (bib 12).
I have watched the entire final start to finish multiple times now, and was standing ready to give you a detailed play-by-play of the entire thing, but really I can make this pretty simple for you: Melbye led off the line, with Jayne and Masson tucking in close behind. By the time the field left the stadium, going into the lefthand curve under the bridge a 100 or so meters into the race, it was three red suits (Melbye and Jayne from Utah, Masson from CNEPH) in the lead, three Alaskans (Earnhart, Young, and Endestad) close behind in a follow pack.
This is… basically what continued to happen for the next two-and-a-half minutes. Up the first climb, it was Melbye, Masson, and Jayne. Around the 180-degree turn by the Grindhouse, it was still Melbye, Masson, and Jayne.
To the top of the final climb: Melbye, Jayne, and then Masson, Melbye throwing down an all-time jumpskate to preserve his lead up and over the crest of the B-Climb.
There was a brief break, a livestream cameo by a coach who had a creative interpretation of the meaning of the blue V-Boards that are typically understood to mark the boundaries of the course, and then Endestad, Earnhart, and Young in pursuit.
By the bottom of the final descent, the only change in this order was that Masson had come around Jayne into second; I’ll assume it was some or all of ski speed, line choice, or draft effect, but I couldn’t see this on the livestream and don’t have athlete audio that specifically speaks to this, so I won’t speculate beyond that.
The men in red sprinted it in. Melbye got there first, taking the win in 2:45.82; it felt like a fitting outcome after he had led for essentially every meter of the course. Masson kept his lead over Jayne to outpace the Utah skier to the line. Masson would finish 0.45 seconds back of Melbye, and 0.13 seconds up on Jayne.
Endestad came in two-plus seconds later, with Earnhart and then Young some distance back. As noted above, Endestad and Earnhart were nonetheless second and third on the domestic national championship podium. Young was the second-placed American U23 athlete on the day; there is no physical podium ceremony for this, but this counts for a lot in the virtual standings for qualification for World U23 Championships. Oh, Young was also second in the qual, which is significant in the math for Nation’s Group starts at this venue for World Cup Finals in two-plus months. Lots to celebrate out there today.
“It went as good as I could have hoped for, with the victory,” was Melbye’s take on his day.
“I think I saw it pretty similar every heat” when it came to strategy, he told Nordic Insights following the podium ceremony. “Take the start and then just sort of defending my position. Experimenting a little bit in the heats, but mainly keeping a pole position the whole way.” This is… precisely what he did in the final, so it seems to have worked for him.
Zach Jayne, meanwhile, is glad that his day lasted for more than just one trip around the 1.5km sprint course.
“Oh man, what a great day,” the Utah skier enthused after the final. “I think I was pretty disappointed after my qualifier this morning. I really just wanted to go home and reset and just talk tactics or whatever. But my main goal was to just come out here and ski more relaxed than I did in my qualifier.”
Reader, he did, which is why he claimed the national championship today.
Other than skiing relaxed, were there big changes made between the qual and the heats? Not really.
“I mean, I used the same skis,” Jayne pointed out. “It was just, I think, more of a mindset thing. And I couldn’t be more proud of my teammate Mons Melbye for taking the overall win,” added the man who had just braved the cold by removing his gloves in order to more legibly flash a “U” on the podium.
Turning to the second American man today: What does Erik Flora put in the water there? was on-site reporter Peter Minde’s first question to Ari Endestad, the pride of Fairbanks, after APU skiers claimed two out of three domestic podium spots for the third race in a row.
“Something nice,” Endestad replied.
“The dream is alive and well up at APU,” he continued, “so we are training every day in the summer, and trying to be our best selves. And Erik Flora is just a wonderful coach.”
Endestad said that he was feeling “pretty good” so far this week. “I think I’ve already had my best classic distance race ever,” he reasoned, “but still quite a ways from the podium that day, so I was really looking forward to getting out there today. And as I went through the heats, I got more and more confident with my ability. It was a very, very hard course and hard qualifier — I was throwing up a bit after the qualifier — but it was nice to feel confident going into the final. I do think it’s hard.”
“I wanted to make sure I was not blocked on the hill, and have some room to open up,” was Endestad’s take on strategy for the final. “I was able to do that in both the quarter and the semi, have a gap over the top. The draft is there, but it’s not that big. If you have enough room on the top, you’ll be able to hold it. I got kind of walked down the quarter, got a lucky loser, and then I was able to hold it in a semi. I was pretty tired doing that strategy by the end. But I was happy to at least make it to the final and hold up; it gave me my first American podium at Nationals.”
Endestad’s teammate at APU, Michael Earnhart, also saw his energy flag throughout the rounds (while also, you know, leaving him as the third American today, so it wasn’t that bad).
“This course is hard,” was Earnhart’s take on the day. “I mean, it was only 2:40s, you know, but that was really hard. Especially today, we kind of did a condensed heat schedule. And I ended up being in quarterfinal five, semi two, and then in the final. So from the semi to the final, I only had about 10 minutes. And I think I looked very human in the final. I mean, from the gun, I was just about off the back with Owen Young. We were bringing up the rear and we were not really competing at that point. So I definitely do get tired out there.”
Earnhart came by his fatigue honestly: In addition to the heat schedule, he had placed a heady third in the qualifying round to start the morning.
“I had probably the best qualifier I’ve maybe ever had,” Earnhart said. “Normally, I’m very slow in the qualifier, so I was really happy with that. But that did allow for me to do worse in the heats than I did in the qualifier, which is also unusual for me. So, a little bit of a strange day, but I think there’s a lot of good things for me to take away from it. I always want more, but I can’t be too upset about being fifth.”
Tomorrow is a rest day in Lake Placid. Racing continues on Thursday with the second distance race of the week, a mass start 20km skate. Full coverage will continue in these pages.
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