Alaska's Christianson nabs GS silver at Topolino

One day after collecting two medals in the J3 slalom, Team USA was strong again Saturday in the Trofeo Topolino giant slalom.
ONE DAY AFTER collecting two medals in the J3 slalom, Team USA was strong again Saturday in the Trofeo Topolino giant slalom.
    Slalom gold medalist Kieffer Christianson of Alaska took silver in the GS to cap off a terrific weekend.
    Held at the Panarotta 2002 ski area in the village of Levico Terme, Italy, the one-run giant slalom has a very steep start pitch followed by flatter sections with several knolls and then a flat bottom section. Christianson nailed the top pitch with a much more aggressive line than any other competitor and skied to a second-place finish behind Swiss J3 skier Remy Jordan.  
    Canadian Richard Long skied solidly into third place. Ben Morse of Carrabasset Valley Academy in Maine skied to sixth place and Dylan Rogers of Ausblick finished 44th after having problems negotiating some tighter sections of the course. Jordan finished in 51.97 seconds. Other times were Christianson 52.12, Long 52.39, Morse 52.69 and Rogers 56.13.
    Team USA girls in the giant slalom were led by Rose Caston from Rowmark in 21st place, just two-hundredths ahead of Mount Snow’s Linsey Wright in 23rd. Team Winter Park’s Tracie Kroneberger finished 31st. Johanna Tikkanen of Finland was the winner with a time of 52.02 seconds. Caston finished in 54.77, Wright in 54.79 and Kroneberger in 55.40.