Familiar Faces Top The Podiums In Colorado NorAms

By Published On: November 20th, 2017Comments Off on Familiar Faces Top The Podiums In Colorado NorAms

The 2017-18 NorAm circuit opened over the weekend with the men competing in the first two GS races of the season at Copper Mountain, Colo., while the women kicked things off with two slalom races at Loveland Ski Area.

Canadian World Cup skier Phil Brown, who finished first in last year’s NorAm GS standings, found himself atop the podium in the first race with a combined time of 2:23.36 seconds. His teammate Trevor Philp, who finished just behind Brown in last year’s GS standings, earned a second-place finish on Saturday, 0.06 seconds back. The U.S. Ski Team’s Tommy Ford completed the podium 0.20 seconds back from Brown.

“It was awesome, I think a really good start to the season for me. I think I had a little bit of luck in the first run with bib 1, but I took advantage of it,” Brown said.

Happy to be racing, happy to be here! ? congrats to Tommy and Samu today as well ?

A post shared by Trevor Philp (@twphilp) on

The men’s second run took place under flatter light conditions with a late afternoon start.

“The second run I told myself to just trust the inspection and believe. Even though it’s dark, you have to keep pushing. Yeah I had some not-so-great turns, but in the end I’m happy,” Brown said.

Philp took first place the next day, nudging Ford out of the top spot on the second run. Philp finished with a combined time of 2:31.22, 0.51 seconds ahead of Ford. Samu Torsti, of Finland finished third.

River Radamus finished as the top junior both days, starting 49 on Saturday and 47 on Sunday and finishing in 10th place and sixth place, respectively.

“We had a pretty stacked field so it was sweet to be able to compare it with some of the guys who will be contending in the upcoming World Cups,” Radamus said on Saturday.

The women began the NorAm season in Loveland with only three athletes controlling the podium throughout the weekend.

Canadian World Cup skier Erin Mielzynski took the top spot on Saturday with a combined time of 1:33.00 followed by her teammate and University of Vermont Catamount Laurence St. Germain, who finished 0.69 seconds back.

Leona Popovic of Croatia finished third, 1.49 seconds back.

On the second day of competition, St. Germain took home the victory while Mielzynski settled for second place. St. Germain skied a combined time of 1:28.20, 0.44 seconds ahead of Mielzynski.

Popovic again placed third, 1.42 seconds back.

Full results for the men’s races can be found here , while full results for the women can be found here.

On Monday and Tuesday, the men and women will come together at Copper for the first two men’s slalom races and the first women’s GS races of the season.

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About the Author: Chris Keating

Chris Keating grew up in Vermont and skied at Boston College where he served as captain during his senior year. He is currently a staff writer at The Valley Reporter in Waitsfield, Vt., and will be covering the NCAA and NorAm circuits for SkiRacing.com this winter.