BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sammy Smith won her second national cross country skiing title at the US National Cross Country Championships this week, besting 189 skiers in the classic sprint on Friday at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Twenty-year-old Smith finished the 1.5-km. course in 3 minutes and 14.95 seconds at Mt. Van Hoevenberg. She crossed the line nearly seven seconds ahead of Katie Weaver, who attends Alberta World Cup Academy.

It was the second consecutive year the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team member has won the national championship in the classic sprint.

Smith had already won the national championships in the freestyle skate sprint on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, former Gold Team racer John Steel Hagenbuch, who now races for Dartmouth College, was the second American to cross the finish line in the Men’s 20K Freestyle Mass start at the US National Cross Country Championships.

And Will Koch took third in the Classic Sprint, following John Schwinghamer and Pierre Grall-Johnson.

Zanden McMullen, who races for APU in Alaska, crossed the finish line first in Hagenbuch's race. Mons Melbye, Hagenbuch and Jakob Elias Moch followed. Zach Jayne, a University of Utah racer, was the third American to finish.

Hagenbuch told Faster Skier that he had to make a couple strategic decisions about when to attack during the race. It came down to one finishing move, and he lost time as there wasn’t enough room for him to get around Jakob Elias Moch near the end of the race.

Smith’s two championships should be in her favor when U.S. coaches select eight women for the U.S. Olympic cross country ski team. Nordic phenom Jessie Diggins is the only one who has been confirmed so far.

Smith started her cross-country ski season late after playing left back for the Stanford University women’s soccer team in the national championship game on Dec. 8.

She finished third among Americans and fifth overall in the 10K classic on Sunday, and she was 11th in the 20K freestyle on Thursday.