STORY AND PHOTO BY BERIT K. CAMPION

John Steel Hagenbuch of Ketchum won his third consecutive NCAA cross-country skiing individual title for Dartmouth College this week, repeating as men’s NCAA 7.5km classic skiing race champion.

The Sun Valley Community School and Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alum finished three laps around the interval-start racecourse at Soldier Hollow in a time of 18:25:3.

Hagenbuch's victory comes weeks after he placed 14th in the men’s 10k skate race at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics—the top US finisher in that race despite taking a wrong turn after the start. 

Soldier Hollow, Utah, or “SoHo,” as it is known, served as the cross-country ski and biathlon venue for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The hilly, intimidating course lies 5,463 to 5,800 feet above sea level and is well-known as a high-altitude Nordic pain cave.

Hagenbuch, who grew up in Ketchum and often trains and races in thin air, hammered out three stellar laps on fast snow despite thin, late-season conditions.

Third out of the gate in the interval start, Hagenbuch posted the third-fastest first lap time then clocked the fastest second-lap time. On the final lap, he surged through the stadium before climbing up and looping around and down the opposite side of the venue.

Then he attacked the last, long, hard climb, showcasing ideal classic skiing technique in warming conditions. 

Gasping for breath as he crested the climb, he rounded the corner, double-poled then tucked down the tricky descent past an array international flags and cheering fans before he made his final push up and over the “Bridge of Sighs” into the stadium.

Hagenbuch crossed the finish line then collapsed, having depleted his veritable gas tank. Then came the long wait for the rest of the field to finish before he found out if he had won.

The interval-start format is akin to a cycling time trial in that is a race against the clock— and a race against yourself. Racers cannot always gauge where they stand vis-à-vis their competitors scattered around the course. The French call this format in cycling a "contre le montre,” or race against the clock.

No stranger to self-discipline and managing pain over long distances, Hagenbuch set a course record on the Baldy Hill Climb last fall in Ketchum.

He demonstrated his on-snow prowess artfully at Soldier Hollow, weeks after his Olympic début at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium in Val di Femme, Italy. Hagenbuch became the second-ever Dartmouth skier to three-peat as an NCAA skiing individual champion and the first ever Dartmouth cross-country skier to do so. 

Hagenbuch had a strong chance of winning the NCAA 20k mass-start skate race scheduled on Saturday--the last day of the 2026 NCAA skiing championships. The forecast called for unseasonably warm and likely slow if not also soupy race conditions.

But Hagenbuch was ready to give it his all in his last-ever collegiate race. And Dartmouth Nordic ski coaches Brayton Osgood and Cami Thompson, the latter of whom has produced many Olympic cross-country skiers and biathletes, vowed to once again give it their all to prep, wax and test skis to put Hagenbuch and his teammates in position to contend for collegiate cross-country skiing glory.

Hagenbuch came oh so close, with the University of Utah’s Mons Melbye, a freshman from Oslo, Norway, narrowly beating him. Melbye crossed the finish line in 46:14.6—0.4 of a second ahead of Hagenbuch. Hagenbuch’s silver medal time was 46:15.0 on a course that consisted of multiple laps on a challenging, high-altitude course.

Conditions were fast and the air temp at the start was 34F with overcast skies. The course held up well after the women raced 20k earlier in the morning.

On the first of eight laps around the 20-kilometer course, Hagenbuch, wearing bib #14, chased down an early breakaway then briefly led the field before the pack accordioned back together for much of the race.

Hagenbuch looked to be out of the hunt for a podium finish until near the end of the race, when he masterfully skated past competitors, picking them off one by one.

Hagenbuch was the top U.S. finisher in a strong field of international and national competitors.

Next up: Hagenbuch will compete in the World Cup Finals for cross-country skiing next weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y. He will graduate from Dartmouth in June with an AB degree in government.