Hagenbuch Wins National Championship to Highlight Strong Day Two for Big Green

Thursday, March 7

Steamboat Springs, Colo.

Dartmouth College

NCAA Day Two

Hagenbuch Wins National Championship to Highlight Strong Day Two for Big Green

3/7/2024 5:02:00 PM | Skiing

Day 2 Results and Standings (PDF)

The national title is Dartmouth skiing’s first since 2019

By: Justin Lafleur

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — Highlighted by junior John Steel Hagenbuch's national championship in the men's 7.5K freestyle, the Dartmouth ski team put forth a stellar performance in the Nordic events during day two of Thursday's NCAA Championships. On the women's side, junior Jasmine Drolet made the podium, placing third. As a team, the Big Green women accumulated the second-most points in the 7.5K freestyle while the men finished third in a stellar all-around effort.

As a team, Dartmouth is up to 184 points, which is good for fourth place in the overall team standings. The Big Green only trail Utah (312.5), host Colorado (256.5) and Denver (251.0) and are ahead of Montana State in fifth (183.0) and Vermont in sixth (167.0).

Hagenbuch and Drolet were first team All-Americans while sophomore Jack Lange was a second team All-American for his top 10 finish. Every Dartmouth skier who competed on Thursday finished in the top 20.

Hagenbuch finished the men's 7.5K freestyle 11 seconds ahead of anyone else, posting a time of 19:09.2. He became the first Big Green skier to win a national championship since Tanguy Nef won the men's giant slalom and Katharine Ogden captured the women's 15k classic in 2019. This season, Hagenbuch has won seven different events, including three straight, after going 2-for-2 at the EISA Championship / Middlebury Carnival in late February.

"I'm from altitude, so I wasn't too uncomfortable coming to altitude from sea level at Dartmouth," said Hagenbuch. "Racing at altitude is a bit different than at sea level because if you go too hard early in the race, it's really hard to come back strongly on the last lap.

"My game plan going into the race today was to ski pretty conservatively on the first lap, so I was happy with being able to stay pretty relaxed and build into the effort," he continued. "I was getting good splits throughout from the coaches who were out on the course, telling me my progress against my other competitors."

Last season, Hagenbuch finished second in both events at the NCAA Championships, but was able to break through on Thursday.

"I knew I was in the lead and knew I needed to keep pushing," he said. "Really happy with how I executed the race plan today."

Lange earned All-America status with his ninth-place finish in the same event, with a time of 19:59.8. It's his second-career All-America honor at NCAAs after also finishing ninth in the 20k classic last season.

Junior Luke Allan finished 20th with a time of 20:39.5 in a strong effort as well.

On the women's side, Drolet came in third with a time of 22:30.7, marking her second-career All-America distinction after finishing eighth and earning second-team laurels in the 20k classic last season.

"Just because we're at altitude, I was a bit nervous," she said. "I never raced this high up before. A strategy is to go out really easy and controlled and ski well and smooth instead of trying to go fast; I think that worked really well. I took the first lap really easy, but ended up working my way up in a nice easy way as the race went on."

In the last carnival, Drolet also finished third in the 7.5K freestyle, at the EISA Championship / Middlebury Carnival.

"I can't believe that I podiumed, especially in a skate race," said Drolet. "Normally, I'm more confident in classic races. It's really exciting to see and exciting that the team did so well today."

Also finishing in the top 20 for the Big Green were sophomore Ava Thurston in 12th (23:17.0) and junior Emma Reeder in 20th (23:50.1).

The Big Green will return to action on Friday with the slalom during day three of the NCAA Championships.