Recap: Cross Country National Championships Wrap in Anchorage
The 2025 U.S. National Championships have officially wrapped in Anchorage, Alaska, with new National Championships crowned and top results by athletes worldwide throughout the four races, including distance and sprint race formats.
Kinkaid Park in Anchorage played host to hundreds of skiers–and even more volunteers–for the past week for the 2025 U.S. National Championships, which brought together junior and senior-level athletes from around the world, collegiate programs and the Stifel U.S. Ski Team. The race format was as follows: 10k skate interval start, 1.3k classic sprint, 20k classic mass and a 1.3k skate sprint.
Kinkaid Park has long been a staple of the cross country ski community in Anchorage and despite the rain, cold temperatures and a mixture of manmade and natural snow, it held together nicely for the four races. On the first day, Jan . 4, athletes took to the track for the 10k skate.
Day One: 10k Skate (National Championship)
In the interval format, 183 men took to the start line for the reportedly “very cold” race. John Steel Hagenbuch of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team B team and a Dartmouth College student-athlete took the win in a fast 10k time, notching a National Championship title to his decorated resume. After coming off racing in the first period of the World Cup, Hagenbuch took the win ahead of Norway’s Andreas Kirkeng by .8 seconds and 14.6 seconds ahead of University of Utah’s Walker Hall. Stifel U.S. Ski Team and Anchorage-local Luke Jager was just off the podium in fourth. For the domestic podium (only U.S. athletes), Hagenbuch was first, Hall second and Jager third. Results can be found here.
For the women, 151 athletes took to the interval start gate. It was a fight between Stifel U.S. Ski Team and the University of Alaska Fairbanks dual athlete Kendall Kramer, Montana State’s Kate Oldham and University of Utah’s Erica Laven. Kramer ultimately took second place in the final result. Oldham led the domestic podium, Kramer in second and U.S. Biathlon athlete Luci Anderson in third. Results here.
Day Two: Classic Sprint (National Championship)
Sprinting was on the program for the second day of racing at Kincaid. In the qualification round, Jager put down the fastest time, with Bridger Ski Foundation’s Erin Bianco winning the round for the women. With the top 30 from both men and women qualifying for the sprint heats, it was anyone’s game to take home the National Championship title. It was cold and windy going into the heats, but three more races would determine the day's winner. For the men, Jager was leading the way with his qualification win. Through the heats, Norway’s Kirkeng, who was second in the 10k skate two days prior, moved up a place and took home the overall win. Jager was second, holding off his teammate Michael Earnhart, who was third. Yet, looking at the domestic podium, it wasn’t only a Stifel U.S. Ski Team sweep but all athletes from Anchorage growing up skiing and racing on these tracks their entire lives were on the podium together, with Jager in first, Earnhart second and Murphy third. Results here.
For the women, Bianco was the athlete to beat and Sammy Smith was the one to do it for the domestic podium. After a successful first season of D1 soccer at Stanford, Smith returned to ski racing with minimal skiing under her belt this season. Despite the late start to the season, Smith was the first American across the sprint finish, becoming the U.S. National Champion for the classic sprint. Following her was Bozeman’s Bianco, who is coming off some World Cup racing and rounded out by Dartmouth’s Nina Seemann in third. For the overall podium, Sweden’s Erica Laven was first and Estonia’s Mariel Merlii was second. Results here.
Day Three: 20k Classic (National Championship)
Back to distance racing for the third day of events. It was a mass start day, with all athletes immediately off the line in one pack. In the men’s race, the field never really broke up - skiers raced in a pack most of the race through the four laps of the 5k course. In the final lap, it was anyone’s race, but Norway’s Kirkeng put the hammer down and crossed the finish line first, taking home another win. Seconds later, Stifel U.S. Ski Team’s Hagenbuch was in second place and Jager third. The domestic podium was in Hagenbuch’s favor, with the Dartmouth senior taking home his second victory of the National Championships, with Jager in second and Will Koch in third. Results here.
In the women’s race, it was Fairbanks local Kramer who made a statement on the course, taking home her first National Championship title in front of family, friends, teammates, and more. It was her against Laven, pushing a pace that was too fast for the rest of the field. Skiing together for most of the race was a fight from start to finish. Neck-to-neck into the final stretch, Kramer took it into another gear, crossing the line in first place and clinching her first-ever National Championship title. Laven was second and Lauren Jortberg of Quebec Ski Club was third. Domestic results were led by Kramer, with Jortberg in second and Oldham in third. Results here.
Final Day: Skate Sprint (SuperTour)
It’s been a long week of racing in Anchorage, and the classic sprint has wrapped up all the action. The day started with a stellar skate sprint qualifier by an Anchorage skier and first-year Stifel U.S. Ski Team athlete Murphy Kimball and Laven winning the women's qualifier. Into the heats, the course was quickly deteriorating because of the rain. Still, the athletes put their best ski forward and continued, with the course surprisingly staying intact despite the unfavorable weather. Into the final, Alaska’s Earnhart, a Stifel U.S. Ski Team B Team athlete, took home the SuperTour win, with Walker Hall of the University of Utah Ski Team in second and Carl Rune of Sweden in third. Earnhart, Hall topped the domestic podium in second and Reid Goble of the Bridger Ski Foundation in third. Results here. For the women, Team Birkie’s Mariel Merlii led the way first, with Laven second and Kate Oldham third. The domestic podium was led by Oldham, Anderson in second, and Stifel U.S. Ski Team’s Smith in third. Results here.
