Alpine nationals: Sullivan nabs 1st DH national title

Marco Sullivan shrugged off the disappointment of the second half of the World Cup season by winning his first downhill national championship Friday. Sullivan sizzled on the lower half of the Bowl/Gelende trail to win the men’s downhill at the 2007 Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.
    Erik Fisher was second and Jeremy Transue, winner of Thursday’s FIS downhill, was third. Unofficially, Bode Miller was 12th, having competed after running a special training run Friday morning because his skis were late arriving in Anchorage from Denver earlier in the week.
    Sullivan, who won the 2002 super G national title at Squaw, completed his run in 1 minute, 43.70 seconds, 1.09 better than Fisher and 1.15 better than Transue.
    “Whenever you win a race, you know you’re the best that day, whether it’s a World Cup or the nationals … it’s pretty satisfying,” Sullivan said.

ALYESKA RESORT, Alaska — Marco Sullivan shrugged off the disappointment of the second half of the World Cup season by winning his first downhill national championship Friday. Sullivan sizzled on the lower half of the Bowl/Gelende trail to win the men’s downhill at the 2007 Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships.
    Erik Fisher was second and Jeremy Transue, winner of Thursday’s FIS downhill, was third. Unofficially, Bode Miller was 12th, having competed after running a special training run Friday morning because his skis were late arriving in Anchorage from Denver earlier in the week.
    Sullivan, who won the 2002 super G national title at Squaw, completed his run in 1 minute, 43.70 seconds, 1.09 better than Fisher and 1.15 better than Transue.
    “Whenever you win a race, you know you’re the best that day, whether it’s a World Cup or the nationals … it’s pretty satisfying,” Sullivan said.
    “I just charged it. Obviously I had something figured out the other guys didn’t. I don’t really know what to say. I had a really good run. I knew I was fast. I guess I was able to hold my line and hold my tuck in spots where other guys weren’t, and that paid off. Especially on the bottom, I was fast.”
    Steven Nyman was fourth, T.J. Lanning fifth, Scott Macartney sixth and Justin Johnson seventh. Will Brandenburg was the top junior, in eighth, with Travis Ganong 11th and John Love 15th.
    The 2007 Ski Racing Junior of the Year honor, for both men and women, will be presented Sunday night at Alyeska. The significance of that honor as a beacon of racing potential was evident in the men’s results Friday. Seven of the top 15 finishers in the downhill are former winners of the Ski Racing Junior of the Year: Sullivan (1999, 2000), Transue (2003), Nyman (2002), Johnson (1996), Christopher Beckmann (2006), Tim Jitloff (2005) and Ted Ligety (2004).
    Sullivan was plenty fast in the “Waterfall” section, the lower third of the course. In fact, after just the fifth-fastest top of the course, Sullivan was second, second and first in the final three intervals.
    “I did that really well and was able to carry my speed off from the top flat all the way over that and onto the bottom pitch. I did that really smooth, and I think that helped really solidify that for me,” Sullivan said.
    Miller started 30th in the field of 64, so Sullivan, who started 11th, had a long time to wait for his title to be secure.
    “Bode is unarguably one of the best downhill racers in the world,” Sullivan said. “With him still to race I was a little nervous. He just got on the course for the first time this morning. I was pretty confident but I was glad when I saw his time.”
    Fisher had the fastest start of the course but lost time on the bottom.
    “Marco skied awesome, and I was just happy to sneak in there behind him,” said Fisher, the 2007 NorAm downhill champion. “He’s a great guy to be on the podium with.
    “The top was better for me. The bottom was OK — I held my own down there, lots of guys had trouble. I just tried to stick with it and it worked out all right.”
    U.S. men’s head coach Phil McNichol said, “It’s a good start for the championships. We’ve got a beautiful blue sky, cold temperatures, great snow. We saw this kind of good snow only a few times this year, mostly in Colorado in December” at the VISA Birds of Prey races, the lone men’s World Cup stop in the United States this season.
    “Marco’s been skiing great. He’s relaxed and it showed in his skiing. He didn’t make any big mistakes … and now he’s the downhill champion,” McNichol said. “You have to be clean on this course and manage your run. You have to be on your game all the way.”

Juniors Brandenburg, Ganong solid
    Despite being the top junior, Brandenburg, who is better in technical events, said, “I’m a little disappointed. Both training runs were really good, and yesterday didn’t go so good. I made a big mistake and then today again there — in the same exact spot — I did the same thing.”
    The spot was the Waterfall Jump, but Brandenburg probably shouldn’t have been too surprised to have had some difficulty. “I didn’t run downhill very much this year, so I’m not very good in the air right now, both runs in a row I did a little flailing.”
    Ganong was truly just happy to be here. “I love it up here. I’ve never been to Alaska before.”
    As for is race? “I pretty much did what I wanted. I had a couple of little bobbles, but it was a pretty clean run,” Ganong said. “I was pretty happy with where I ended up.”
    Like many of the more-established racers in the field, Ganong was doing some late-season equipment testing.
    “I switched skis for today,” he said. “It’s always a gamble, but you have to gamble every once in a while. It paid off today.”
    Ganong said he has intensified his racing as his point profile has improved.
    “I definitely did a lot more traveling than I have in other seasons,” he said. “We kind of put it all into one big trip pretty much. I didn’t go home between trips. That part was a bit different, a little different to just repack your bag and go race again, and the jet lag and all that stuff — it’s pretty tough.”

Miller unable to find the speed
    Alyeska was blessed with blue skies and bright sunshine, but the high ridges above the course made lighting difficult for the men’s racers, with shadows moving around from gate to gate. “On some gates it doesn’t matter at all, but on the bigger turn with more bumps, that’s not a place where you want to have more shadows,” Miller said.
    Many racers had difficulty with a long left-hand turn and traverse heading into the final pitch. “That’s not a good turn in particular, because the speeds are high, it’s kind of bumpy, and it’s really pretty important for the last four gates,” Miller said.
    Miller, who secured the super G World Cup
title and podiumed in GS at World Cup Finals, seemed it good spirits despite finishing off the pace Friday.
    “It was a tough season to keep your motivation high, with how much difficulties we had with weather, cancellations and moving everything around. It definitely picked up at the end of the season,” Miller said. “We had some good races in Kranjska Gora, we had some good races up in Norway, then the [World Cup] Finals were pretty solid. Guys finished with more energy than they thought they were going to, and more excitement. I’m always ready for the end of the season, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
    He also chimed in on Alyeska as a venue for nationals.   
    “It’s a long ways to come this time of the year, but I think this time of year there’s nowhere better suited to have our national championships,” Miller said. “They always have great snow. Last time we were here, I think they had 12 days of straight sunshine, which is totally rare anywhere you are. They’ve got to push a little bit with where they run the course and how they set it, and they could probably use an injection bar, get up there and put some ice down on the track, I think that would help, but this is a great place to have our championships.”

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

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
U.S. National Downhill Championship, Alyeska, Alaska, March 30, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
Men
1. SULLIVAN, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
2. FISHER, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3. TRANSUE, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4. NYMAN, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
5. LANNING, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
Women
1. RICHARDSON, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
2. LITTMAN, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
3. MARSHALL, Dynastar/Lange/Look
4. COOK, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5. SMITH, Dynastar//Look

The downhills are the first races of the 2007 Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships. Downhills held March 29 were FIS-sanctioned races but not part of the championship.
    It is the first DH championship for Marco Sullivan, his second national title after the SG title won at Squaw Valley March 15, 2002.
    It is the first national championship podium for Erik Fisher. … He had previously earned a World Junior Championships medal (Feb 23, 2005, Bardonecchi, Italy) and won two Junior Olympic titles in 2002. It is the second national championship podium for Jeremy Transue, having placed second in DH on the same Alyeska track March 19, 2004.
    It is the second national championship for Kaylin Richardson and her third podium, having also won the slalom and placing third in the SG at Sugarloaf, Maine, March 26 and 27 (SL), 2006.
    It is the first national championship podium for both Julia Littman and Chelsea Marshall.

2007 U.S. Alpine Championships men's downhill results

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

    1    11   533131    SULLIVAN, Marco              USA     1'43.70      0.00
    2    14   534939    FISHER, Erik                 USA     1'44.79     14.19
    3    15   533762    TRANSUE, Jeremy              USA     1'44.85     14.97
    4    10   533866    NYMAN, Steven                USA     1'45.07     17.84
    5    17   534567    LANNING, Thomas (tj)         USA     1'45.17     19.14
    6    12   532490    MACARTNEY, Scott             USA     1'45.27     20.44
    7    13   532173    JOHNSON, Justin J            USA     1'45.40     22.13
    8    28   530165    BRANDENBURG, Will            USA     1'45.43     22.52
    9    19   534698    BECKMANN, Christopher        USA     1'45.55     24.08
   10     8   534959    JITLOFF, Tim                 USA     1'45.58     24.47
   11    16   530874    GANONG, Travis               USA     1'45.59     24.60
   12    30   532431    MILLER, Bode                 USA     1'45.62     25.00
   13     6   534562    LIGETY, Ted                  USA     1'45.70     26.04
   14     4   530841    KERR, Errol                  USA     1'45.99     29.81
   15     7   530259    LOVE, John                   USA     1'46.21     32.68
   16    29   530837    KELLEY, Tim                  USA     1'46.29     33.72
   17    18   530939    WEIBRECHT, Andrew            USA     1'46.43     35.54
   18     9   530603    HOLMER, Eric                 USA     1'46.48     36.19
          2   530731    CASTON, Marcus               USA     1'46.48     36.19
   20    21   531302    WAGNER, Andrew               USA     1'46.53     36.84
   21     1   530644    HAMMER, Maximilian           USA     1'46.92     41.92
   22     3   534040    COCHRAN, Jimmy               USA     1'47.02     43.22
   23    24   530265    MIKOS, Mark                  USA     1'47.10     44.26
   24    48   930024    MAPLE, Wiley                 USA     1'47.54     49.99
   25    36   531799    FORD, Tommy                  USA     1'47.64     51.29
         25   530925    HELDMAN, Bump                USA     1'47.64     51.29
   27    26   530751    BARTELS, Greg                USA     1'47.98     55.72
   28    35   530283    REEVES, Alex                 USA     1'47.99     55.85
   29    34   530141    WOLOSYN, Ryan                USA     1'48.00     55.98
   30    37   534702    CASEY, Rory                  USA     1'48.24     59.10
   31    23   531134    SCHWARTZ, Zachary            USA     1'48.33     60.27
   32    31   531145    SPENST, Taggart              USA     1'48.41     61.32
   33    49   531452    BIESEMEYER, Thomas           USA     1'48.64     64.31
   34    62   530651    STIEGLER, Seppi              USA     1'48.67     64.70
         33   532270    MCLAUGHRY, Luke              USA     1'48.67     64.70
   36    38   532554    PHILLIPS, Andrew             USA     1'48.68     64.83
   37    20   534901    ASOIAN, Nathan P             USA     1'48.81     66.52
   38    61   534899    MCKAY, Dan                   USA     1'49.01     69.13
   39    39   533479    WOODS, Tim                   USA     1'49.03     69.39
   40    46   530645    HARRIS, Martin               USA     1'49.06     69.78
   41    41   530262    LUND, Jacob                  USA     1'49.12     70.56
   42    60   934518    DANIELS, Nick                USA     1'49.29     72.77
   43    45   531161    TRANSUE, Jon                 USA     1'49.45     74.86
   44    53   534165    JOHNSON, Erik                USA     1'49.52     75.77
   45    51   530877    POEHLING, Bobby              USA     1'49.56     76.29
   46    47   530780    DAVIS, Eric                  USA     1'49.62     77.07
   47    22   531177    WEHAN, Bryce                 USA     1'49.69     77.98
   48    50   930163    KEMP, John                   USA     1'49.84     79.93
   49    27   533115    MCNEILL, Jason               USA     1'49.85     80.06
   50    43   532165    LEAFE, Trevor                USA     1'50.04     82.54
   51    59   530244    JOHNSON, Austin              USA     1'50.07     82.93
   52    44   531178    WEIBRECHT, Ethan             USA     1'50.13     83.71
   53    63   532810    DANIELS, Elliot G            USA     1'50.16     84.10
   54    55   531042    MCCONNELL, Cory              USA     1'50.28     85.66
   55    57   9
30105    GRANSTROM, Colby             USA     1'50.33     86.31
   56    42   531073    MORGAN, Brian                USA     1'50.67     90.74
   57    54   534933    DONOVAN, Ryan                USA     1'50.72     91.39
   58    40   532138    KASPER, Nolan                USA     1'50.79     92.30
   59    56   530149    ANDERSEN, Eric H             USA     1'50.84     92.95
   60    58   930023    COFFEY, Sam                  USA     1'51.05     95.68
   61    52   930107    GREGORAK, Will               USA     1'51.06     95.81

   DID NOT START
          5   534038    NICKERSON, Warner C          USA

    DID NOT FINISH
         64   934502    ANKENY, Michael              USA
         32   533444    GIBSON, Beau                 USA