Schwartz Makes Her Debut at NCAA Nordic Skiing Championships

Junior Meredith Schwartz served as Harvard’s sole Nordic skiing representative at the 2026 NCAA Championships, where she competed in the women’s 7.5-kilometer classic and the 20-kilometer freestyle at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway, Utah.

Schwartz made her NCAA Championship debut in the two Nordic events.

In the 7.5-kilometer classic on Thursday, the junior finished 27th out of the 80 racers overall with a time of 29:43.7, earning four team points for the Crimson. The race was an individual-start format, with skiers beginning at 30-second intervals and racing across the course.

Despite competing in her first NCAA Championships race, Schwartz held her own against a deep field of the nation’s top college Nordic skiers. Senior Rosie Fordham of Alaska Fairbanks won the title with an impressive time of 24:08.0, just narrowly beating University of Utah’s sophomore Erica Laven, while University of Denver’s freshman Synne Bøllingmo followed right behind her for third place.

Schwartz qualified for the NCAA Championships after a strong first full collegiate season with Harvard. During the EISA campaign, the Anchorage, Alaska native recorded seven top-30 finishes, three top-20 results, and one top-10 performance, and impressively, a seventh-place finish in the sprint classic at the Vermont Carnival. In the EISA standings, she finished 16th in classic, 31st in freestyle, and 20th overall.

Following the first two days of the NCAA Championships, Harvard sat 19th overall with 10 points, with six points from sophomore Duncan Armstrong in Wednesday’s men’s giant slalom and four points from Schwartz’s performance in Thursday’s Nordic race.

Nordic competition concluded on Saturday with the 20-kilometer freestyle mass start, where Schwartz returned to the course for the last race of the championships.

Schwartz finished 36th overall with a time of 58:25.1, completing her debut after placing 27th in Thursday’s competition.

The race was won by Fordham, who got her second title of the week with a time of 51:54.6, earning 40 team points for the Nanooks. University of Vermont’s graduate student Haley Brewster finished second, and Utah’s Laven got third.

With the completion of the final Nordic race, Harvard finished 16th overall, with 32 team points at the NCAA Skiing Championships. The Crimson’s total includes 21 overall points from Armstrong in both alpine races, seven points from senior captain Luke Kearing in the slalom, and four points from Schwartz in the 7.5-kilometer classic.

— Staff writer Tamar H. Scheinfeld can be reached at [email protected].