Alpine nationals: Mancuso, Cook, Hitchcock top SG

By Published On: April 1st, 2007Comments Off on Alpine nationals: Mancuso, Cook, Hitchcock top SG

Fresh off a spectacular World Cup season, Julia Mancuso soared to the super G victory Saturday at the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.
    Mancuso, who just completed the best U.S. women’s World Cup overall season since 1984, earned the eighth national title of her career, with Stacey Cook second and Katie Hitchcock third for a California podium sweep.
    Kiley Staples was the top junior, finishing sixth.
    Click here for a nationals photo gallery from Jonathan Selkowitz.
    "I'm always psyched to go to nationals," Mancuso said. "This time is a little more mellow, I had a long World Cup season — long and successful — so I was a little more relaxed coming in because we had a break also. And I’m trying some new equipment and just seeing how things are going."


ALYESKA RESORT, Alaska — Fresh off a spectacular World Cup season, Julia Mancuso soared to the super G victory Saturday at the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.
    Mancuso, who just completed the best U.S. women’s World Cup overall season since 1984, earned the eighth national title of her career, with Stacey Cook second and Katie Hitchcock third for a California podium sweep.
    Kiley Staples was the top junior, finishing sixth.
    Click here for a nationals photo gallery from Jonathan Selkowitz.
    "I'm always psyched to go to nationals," Mancuso said. "This time is a little more mellow, I had a long World Cup season — long and successful — so I was a little more relaxed coming in because we had a break also. And I’m trying some new equipment and just seeing how things are going."
    Versus will broadcast coverage from the championships on Saturday, April 7, at 6 p.m. ET.
    In the finish arena, the talk was all about the tricky jump on the lower half of the course at the Waterfall section. Racing the course with only a visual inspection meant course reports were that much more important.
    “Big air. They just said it was a lot bigger than it was inspected" Hitchcock said. "And usually, they don’t say big air unless it’s big air. So I kind of had a little bit of an idea, especially after Julia called up the course report, and that helped a lot too. She said pretty much that you can’t be too right and had to go with it.”
    Mancuso said the problem with the jump didn't come from taking too much speed into it but rather the fact that the course sloped uphill and made for a blind turn at that spot.  
    "It’s not so much that you’re catching air uphill but when you see the next gate you haven’t taken off yet so you kind of relax, so the next thing you know you're projectiled the opposite way of where you're supposed to go," she said. "It’s just a little bit difficult. It's tricky. … No matter how fast you’re going you kind of drop off there and it’s just a little bit hard to make your direction change in time."
    Cook, the 2006 U.S. super G champion, said the problem with the Waterfall jump wasn't apparent during inspection. After Caitlin Ciccone skied off-course after the Waterfall, Cook — who would run three racers later — said coach Alex Hoedlmoser radioed up and told his charges to scrub speed entering the section, get through it and turn on the jets in the lower third of the course.
    "The lower section was awesome," Cook said. "I think I may have overskied it a little bit because the snow was super-sweet so I was having fun making some sweet turns and not really going for it, but I'm happy with my result."
    Coming across the line and seeing herself in second place was a shock, Cook said.
    "I was totally surprised because I went back uphill to get to that next gate after the Waterfall. I thought I was going to be last four sure," she said. "I guess everyone else was having the same problems though."     
    Jessica Kelley, more of a technical discipline standout, was fourth.
    “I don’t do any super G’s and I was kind of nervous in the start because I kept hearing about that one turn that everybody was having trouble with," Kelley said. "They were saying you can’t go into it too aggressive because you’ll just go so wide.
I knew from there the turns were GS-like, and that's what I'm strongest at, so I knew if I could at least make that turn well what I gave up over the next few turns I could gain back."
    Kaylin Richardson, winner of Friday's downhill, slipped to seventh after a mistake on the Waterfall section.
    “I think I was skiing all right up at the top. At the bottom I was angry. They said you’re going to get air there, to try and get out of your tuck and absorb it. I got out of my tuck and tried to … I guess I needed to press more, because I got up — and maybe I was a little static, but man, it was like a total kicker. And since you’re going uphill, you kind of get thrown back. I thought I was forward …"

Staples paces juniors
    “It was really fun, it was a really good set,” Staples said. “The only problem was over Waterfall — it was really big air. I ran early enough that we didn’t really know about it. But other than that I skied pretty well.”
    Unlike the men, who had to negotiate some tough terrain in flat light, the women ran the race in bright sunshine. That didn’t make the Waterfall easy, though.
    “It was really unexpected, and it was really, really big,” Staples said. “It was probably bigger than what we did in the downhill this week.
    “I’m usually fine in the air. But here, the takeoff point was pretty late, so you went off loaded and you landed on a flat, so it was kind of hard, and there was a huge turn right after it. It was pretty hard, but I think I handled it pretty well.”
    Staples is a standout in slalom, having won the season slalom title at NorAm Finals at Panorama a few weeks ago.
    “I just wanted to come out and have fun, do the best that I could. I’ve had a pretty good season so far, so I just wanted to go out and not worry about it either way,” Staples said.
    “The last month has been really good for me.”
    Megan McJames, who was promoted from the development team to the B team before this season, has struggled at times this season, her first on the World Cup. Saturday, she managed a solid 11th-place result.
    “The race was good. The course set was a little funky, so that threw me,” McJames said. “[Off Waterfall] I definitely got a lot of air so I got late, but I think I skied everything else my best.”

— Don Cameron, Sam Flickinger and Hank McKee contributed to this report


2007 Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships women's super G results

 PL    ST     CODE    COMPETITOR-
----------------- NAT       FINAL      RACE
Nr SURNAME+NAME TIME POINTS

1 9 537545 MANCUSO, Julia USA 1'11.80 0.00
2 11 537582 COOK, Stacey J USA 1'12.03 3.30
3 16 537768 HITCHCOCK, Katie USA 1'12.12 4.59
4 24 537230 KELLEY, Jessica C USA 1'12.62 11.76
5 28 537672 LITTMAN, Julia USA 1'12.80 14.35
6 7 535585 STAPLES, Kiley USA 1'12.90 15.78
7 10 537626 RICHARDSON, Kaylin L USA 1'12.91 15.92
8 42 538471 COOPER, Kirsten A USA 1'13.03 17.64
9 29 538258 HAMMOND, Courtney USA 1'13.11 18.79
10 5 538325 VICTORY, Hannah USA 1'13.19 19.94
11 15 538284 MCJAMES, Megan USA 1'13.23 20.51
12 31 105261 DURHAM, Ashley-Kate CAN 1'13.24 20.66
13 50 539009 LEGGETT, Kristin USA 1'13.27 21.09
14 1 538685 MCKENNIS, Alice USA 1'13.31 21.66
15 20 535629 WILLIAMS, Kate USA 1'13.38 22.67
16 6 537565 KELLEHER, Keely Blair USA 1'13.45 23.67
17 2 537727 PERRICONE, Lisa USA 1'13.46 23.81
17 30 537783 BRIEN, Lauren USA 1'13.46 23.81
19 21 537651 LYNCH, Chelsea USA 1'13.49 24.24
20 3 537360 LATHROP, Jenny USA 1'13.54 24.96
21 34 705349 GANTNEROVA, Jana SVK 1'13.68 26.97
22 12 537772 STIEGLER, Resi USA 1'13.72 27.54
23 48 538486 EDER, Lauren USA 1'13.84 29.26
24 58 538256 GRANT, Sterling USA 1'13.86 29.55
25 37 537988 CARTMILL, Alyssa USA 1'13.91 30.27
26 26 535019 ALLEN, Jennifer E USA 1'14.15 33.71
27 32 106545 EMPEY, Allison CAN 1'14.22 34.72
28 38 705304 GANTNEROVA, Petra SVK 1'14.72 41.89
29 40 538513 HARRIS, Amy USA 1'14.89 44.33
30 56 539096 BYERS, Felicia USA 1'14.90 44.47
31 36 536878 KINGSBURY, Jamie USA 1'14.91 44.61
32 59 535424 GOVAN, Danielle USA 1'14.92 44.76
33 43 538855 FORD, Julia USA 1'15.04 46.48
34 35 538611 WETTLAUFER, Georgia USA 1'15.11 47.48
35 41 538463 CAMETTI, Hannah USA 1'15.16 48.20
36 44 465046 MUNTEANU, Smaranda ROU 1'15.35 50.93
37 45 538644 DVORAK, Nicole USA 1'15.43 52.07
38 39 538681 DUNLEAVY, Katherine USA 1'15.78 57.09
39 54 535510 NOVA, Chelsea USA 1'15.98 59.96
40 49 538856 FRY, Kayla USA 1'16.01 60.39
41 17 537987 CARTER, Laurel USA 1'16.06 61.11
42 46 538711 GILL, Melissa USA 1'16.27 64.12
43 19 538881 HOSTETTER, Mary Rachel USA 1'16.62 69.14
44 13 538305 SMITH, Leanne USA 1'17.29 78.76
45 53 225428 FAIRWEATHER, Sega GBR 1'18.21 91.95
46 57 538737 HAWMAN, April USA 1'18.93 102.28

DID NOT START
33 538348 WOODWORTH, Natasha USA

DID NOT FINISH
55 539080 ACKERMAN, Delainey USA
52 535473 LONZA, Geordie USA
47 538491 FLETCHER, Erin USA
27 538496 GHENT, Erika USA
25 538270 JANOWIAK, Lyndee USA
23 535614 VANWAGNER, Jennifer USA
22 538470 CONE, Lindsay USA
18 538318 WEST, Ann USA
14 538038 MARSHALL, Chelsea USA
8 537848 CICCONE, Caitlin USA
4 538514 HARTMAN, Katie USA

DISQUALIFIED
51 535405 EVERS, Kirsten USA GATE 34 

 

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