Mons Melbye wins freestyle as Utah ski team goes back-to-back as national champions

MIDWAY — Utah freestyle skier Mons Melbye wasn't going to be denied and made a Herculean effort to stay out front as his 20K freestyle race was coming down to a photo finish.

With his last push, Melbye edged out Dartmouth's John Hagenbuch by six-tenths of a second to finish with a total time of 46:14.6 to claim an individual title, while Hagenbuch finished in second with a 46:15.0 time.

Melbye's title, in addition to teammates Zachary Jayne's ninth-place finish and Max Kluck's 22nd-place finish on the event, was enough to give Utah 71 team points. It was more than enough to lift the Utes to its 18th national championship, which is its second consecutive and sixth in the last seven seasons of competition.

For the four-day event, Utah finished with the top score of 549.5 team points, topping its next closest school, Colorado with 539.0 points. Denver finished the week in third with 386.5 points. Colorado is the only school during Utah's long championship run since 2019 to win a national title in 2024.

Earlier in the day, Erica Laven earned a third-place finish in the women's 20K freestyle with a 52.22.7 time, just edging out Dartmouth's Ava Thurston (52.22.9) to medal. Teammate Witta Walcher finished in fifth (52:24.0) and Sofia Pedersen finished in 24th (55:44.9) to give Utah 70 team points.

The women's start to the day, in addition to Colorado only scoring 56 team points in the women's freestyle ski, helped erase a 6.5-point lead by Colorado going into Saturday's competition.

Utah faired well all week to stay in contention, but finished strong in the final two days to lift the Utes to another title, especially Friday on the men's side. Johs Braathen Herland and Pierick Charest finished third and fourth, respectively, in men's slalom to help Utah to an 85-point day for the men.

On Thursday, both men and women dominated the day on 7.5K classic, with the men scoring an 88 and the women a 78.5 as a team. On the men's side, Melbye closed out the day with a second-place finish, with Jayne earning a sixth-place spot and Kluck 16th.

On the women's side, Laven was also the runner-up on the event, with Walcher adding a fifth-place finish and Pedersen a ninth-place spot. It was enough to give Utah the lead going into the penultimate day of racing.

"Very good day for us, overall," director of skiing Fredrik Landstedt after the second day. "The team really came together, and as a group they all had good races and scored some good points for us. So overall it was an incredible day."

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