Vail NorAm Sl – Stutz and Goodman take honors

Classic Colorado blue skies and a hot sun made for good racing down the slopes in Vail, CO today, as North America’s best men and women raced down the steep pitch of Gold Peak. High altitude and a long course favored the better-conditioned athletes, and finish rates were low while the experienced men and women World Cup racers excelled.
 
The men raced first and Canada came out with another strong performance, this time taking a podium sweep. The youngster, Phil Brown, proudly joined his senior teammates Michael Janyk and Paul Stutz, who are both World Cup regulars.                            

Brown happily reported, “conditions were pretty awesome considering the amount of snow they got this week, the water they put in the hill for the GS made the slalom quite good. It broke up a little bit, and for sure my early start number this morning helped. I had a really solid first run, probably one of my best for the year. This afternoon it was a little warmer, and a little softer and more rutty snow, but I just tried not to think too much and just charge. Obviously there were some mistakes, it could have been better, but I’m really pumped with third place, and I’m really happy with how slalom is going.”

Paul Stutz squeaked out the win by .03 seconds over fellow Canadian teammate, Michael Janyk, who is fresh off a top-15 in the last World Cup slalom in Kitzbuehel. “I think everyone put on a good show and fought really hard, and I’m really happy that I ended up on top, and it’s good to see a top-3 Canadian podium,” said Stutz.   
“As far as my season so far, for sure it’s been up and down and really close on the World Cup, and I’m happy with how I’m skiing, but we always want more from ourselves. This is my second NorAm win for the season, and I’m  deffinately gunnin for a good rest of the season with it,” concluded Stutz.   

                              (Independent Ski Racing’s Megan McJames charges to a 3rd fastest second run)

The women’s race included a world-class line up as well, generating a
6.17-point penalty. The Canadian, Anna Goodman, who now represents
Westminster College, showed that she still has her World Cup speed,
winning the race by nearly 1.5 seconds over current US Ski Team World
Cup racer, Resi Stiegler. Goodman is now 2nd in the NorAm slalom
runnings, only 10 points behind Brittany Phelan. “I’m definitely going
for the NorAm title, I’ve had that as a goal the whole year” said
Goodman. “I’d love to have
the feelings I have now, and have my base in Salt Lake, and going to
school while also being able to race World Cups.” 

                           

Resi Stiegler has been racing mostly World Cups this year, and without the NorAm points came into the race with the disadvantage of starting bib 17. Her less than perfect first run landed her in 6th, igniting her to ski faster on the second run. “First run I didn’t quite get it, but second run I finally got the speed that I feel in training, and it was pretty good!” said a humble Stiegler, who won the second run by nearly one second and moved up to 2nd place overall.

Stiegler came to these NorAms with the intent of preparing for the World Champs next month in Schladming, Austria. “Slalom has been good, I have a need for a bit more speed in the races, and I haven’t been able to race that much, just the World Cups, so I wanted to come to these NorAms and get a couple more starts under my belt. My knee feels awesome, and I’ve gotten past the beginning parts of getting back on skis, and now I’m in the rut where I have to get back into it and go even faster, so that’s what I’m working on for World Champs” said Stiegler.

Men’s top-30 results:

Women’s top-30 results: