Alpine nationals: Miller wins SG for ninth U.S. title

World Cup super G champion Bode Miller tied the U.S. record for most national ski championships Saturday, winning the super G — his ninth title — on the second day of the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.
    Miller, a three-time Olympian who was the 2005 World Cup overall champion, was timed in an unofficial 1 minute, 7.35 seconds for the win and his first national title in super G since 2003. Daron Rahlves, who retired after the 2006 season, took home the super G crowns in 2004, '05 and '06.  
    Steven Nyman was silver medalist Saturday in 1:07.56, with T.J. Lanning in third place (1:08.08).

ALYESKA RESORT, Alaska — World Cup super G champion Bode Miller tied the U.S. record for most men's national ski championships Saturday, winning the super G — his ninth title — on the second day of the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.
    Miller, a three-time Olympian who was the 2005 World Cup overall champion, was timed in an unofficial 1 minute, 7.35 seconds for the win and his first national title in super G since 2003. Daron Rahlves, who retired after the 2006 season, took home the super G crowns in 2004, '05 and '06.  
    Steven Nyman was silver medalist Saturday in 1:07.56, with T.J. Lanning in third place (1:08.08).
    Click here for a nationals photo gallery from Jonathan Selkowitz.
    Miller, who won the World Cup men's super G discipline crown earlier this month in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, joins Dick Durrance and Tiger Shaw atop the men's all-time title list. Cindy Nelson and Tamara McKinney also have nine U.S. titles for the women.
    Andrea Mead-Lawrence leads overall with 10 U.S. titles.
    The key to the course was a five-gate section of the course named the Waterfall, a steep pitch that Miller said he was late entering along with many other racers Saturday.     
    "The speed was a little faster than we thought, I think, and people were getting a little light over the bump at the Waterfall," Miller said. "Once you get light over that, you've lost altitude and then there are two really big turns and (that left) everyone was late for the rhythmic turns.
    "I did the same thing. I got late over the Waterfall, made two pretty bad turns, but I really didn’t carry it out to the next one. I made two bad turns, got late and had to chuck the skis sideways in there, but then I was fine through the rhythmic section and carried the speed on the bottom. Everyone else, more or less, let those two turns screw them up a little longer."
    The section was the make-or-break for the whole course, according to Miller.
    "There was no place else to make up time. The smallest mistake there (created problems). Marco [Sullivan] was super low, Ted [Ligety] was really low, [Jeremy] Transue went out there. All on the same gate. The hill really doesn’t have a lot to it, so there really isn't any section other than that — maybe on the sidehill at the top you could do something — but that's really the one part of the hill with enough pitch (for the course setter) to try and do something with it."
    Nyman added that the Waterfall was difficult, and the flat light made it even more so.
    "It's a tough course, pretty turny and then the Waterfall jump, which really sucked you down the hill and you had to move fast to get back on your skis. And in the flat light, it was tougher," Nyman said. "It was eating up some skiers. 'Mac' [Scott Macartney] went down on his hip and others had big problems, too."   
     Macartney held on to finish fourth, and Will Brandenburg was fifth to lead the junior contingent for the second day in a row. Brandenburg finished eighth in Friday's downhill.
    Newly crowned NorAm overall champ Andrew Weibrecht was sixth, followed by downhill national champion Sullivan, Tim Jitloff, Ted Ligety and Travis Ganong to round out the top 10. 
    U.S. men's head coach Phil McNichol said the flat light added to the challenge, but the podium shouldn't be too much of a surprise. "Those guys scored World Cup points in super G, and that's never an easy deal. The tough part of super G, of course, is you show up, inspect and race it. It's not like a training run or two for downhill, so the flat light just makes the challenge even greater, and it was dark up there," he said.
    "This hill is a good level for nationals — not as tough as the hardest World Cup, perhaps, but certainly a nice step up for non-World Cup skiers. And one run is always a challenge. It turned out to be faster than we anticipated, but it took a while to get that word out to the guys. Bode went and radioed back, but Steven was already on course, so he had to figure it out himself … but Bode's so adaptive to just about everything, and Steven did an outstanding job coming down, too. They went on their own and they got it done, and power to 'em."
    Versus will broadcast coverage from the championships Saturday, April 7, at 6 p.m. ET.
   
— Sam Flickinger, Don Cameron and Hank McKee contributed to this story

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

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

    1     5   532431    MILLER, Bode                 USA     1'07.35      0.00
    2     6   533866    NYMAN, Steven                USA     1'07.56      3.21
    3     9   534567    LANNING, Thomas (tj)         USA     1'08.08     11.16
    4     7   532490    MACARTNEY, Scott             USA     1'08.24     13.61
    5    16   530165    BRANDENBURG, Will            USA     1'08.32     14.83
    6    11   530939    WEIBRECHT, Andrew            USA     1'08.34     15.14
    7    18   533131    SULLIVAN, Marco              USA     1'08.88     23.40
    8    19   534959    JITLOFF, Tim                 USA     1'08.89     23.55
    9    10   534562    LIGETY, Ted                  USA     1'09.02     25.54
   10    13   530874    GANONG, Travis               USA     1'09.07     26.30
   11     3   534532    WEISS, Evan C                USA     1'09.10     26.76
   12    17   534698    BECKMANN, Christopher        USA     1'09.26     29.21
   13     4   530751    BARTELS, Greg                USA     1'09.36     30.74
   14     1   533833    HEINRICH-WALLACE, Mark       USA     1'09.42     31.66
   15    35   532270    MCLAUGHRY, Luke              USA     1'09.50     32.88
   16    12   532173    JOHNSON, Justin J            USA     1'09.56     33.80
   17    14   534038    NICKERSON, Warner C          USA     1'09.59     34.26
   18     8   534939    FISHER, Erik                 USA     1'09.62     34.72
   19    21   530644    HAMMER, Maximilian           USA     1'09.68     35.63
   20    36   531799    FORD, Tommy                  USA     1'09.79     37.32
         22   534901    ASOIAN, Nathan P             USA     1'09.79     37.32
   22    33   531452    BIESEMEYER, Tho
mas           USA     1'09.85     38.23
   23    23   534289    FRANK, Chris                 USA     1'10.01     40.68
   24    40   530283    REEVES, Alex                 USA     1'10.03     40.99
   25    47   530780    DAVIS, Eric                  USA     1'10.07     41.60
   26    31   530877    POEHLING, Bobby              USA     1'10.22     43.89
   27    61   530651    STIEGLER, Seppi              USA     1'10.24     44.20
   28    57   530731    CASTON, Marcus               USA     1'10.32     45.42
   29    42   534933    DONOVAN, Ryan                USA     1'10.35     45.88
   30    44   530141    WOLOSYN, Ryan                USA     1'10.41     46.80
   31    50   532554    PHILLIPS, Andrew             USA     1'10.42     46.95
   32    41   533444    GIBSON, Beau                 USA     1'10.45     47.41
   33    65   530259    LOVE, John                   USA     1'10.47     47.71
   34    20   530841    KERR, Errol                  USA     1'10.49     48.02
   35    67   530214    FORD, William                USA     1'10.56     49.09
         34   531178    WEIBRECHT, Ethan             USA     1'10.56     49.09
   37    39   532165    LEAFE, Trevor                USA     1'10.57     49.24
   38    38   530837    KELLEY, Tim                  USA     1'10.69     51.08
   39    66   531302    WAGNER, Andrew               USA     1'10.73     51.69
   40    37   531073    MORGAN, Brian                USA     1'10.84     53.37
   41    28   534508    CHODOUNSKY, David            USA     1'10.86     53.68
   42    52   930107    GREGORAK, Will               USA     1'10.89     54.14
   43    62   530645    HARRIS, Martin               USA     1'10.92     54.60
   44    32   531145    SPENST, Taggart              USA     1'11.06     56.74
   45    72   532810    DANIELS, Elliot G            USA     1'11.07     56.89
   46    56   930024    MAPLE, Wiley                 USA     1'11.16     58.27
   47    54   531177    WEHAN, Bryce                 USA     1'11.33     60.87
   48    53   531042    MCCONNELL, Cory              USA     1'11.41     62.09
   49    74   530229    HEISE, Rusty                 USA     1'11.55     64.23
   50    68   930105    GRANSTROM, Colby             USA     1'11.56     64.38
         45   530262    LUND, Jacob                  USA     1'11.56     64.38
   52    46   530149    ANDERSEN, Eric H             USA     1'11.57     64.54
   53    55   930023    COFFEY, Sam                  USA     1'11.69     66.37
   54    73   534552    MCDONALD, Will               USA     1'11.88     69.28
   55    51   532138    KASPER, Nolan                USA     1'12.05     71.88
   56    69   934518    DANIELS, Nick                USA     1'12.10     72.64
   57    71   934502    ANKENY, Michael              USA     1'12.49     78.61
   58    70   534702    CASEY, Rory                  USA     1'12.90     84.88
   59    60   533479    WOODS, Tim                   USA     1'12.94     85.49

   DID NOT START
         64   533903    BROWN, Ben                   USA

    DID NOT FINISH
         63   531161    TRANSUE, Jon                 USA
         59   534165    JOHNSON, Erik                USA
         58   930163    KEMP, John                   USA
         49   531134    SCHWARTZ, Zachary            USA
         48   530264    MANTER, Benjamin             USA
         43   530778    COLLINS, Shane               USA
         30   534040    COCHRAN, Jimmy               USA
         29   530265    MIKOS, Mark                  USA
         27   530244    JOHNSON, Austin              USA
         26   533115    MCNEILL, Jason               USA
         25   531181    THORSON, Tague               USA
         24   530925    HELDMAN, Bump                USA
         15   533762    TRANSUE, Jeremy              USA
          2   530603    HOLMER, Eric                 USA