Lindsey Van led the U.S. Ski Jumping Team in a Continental Cup competition Friday, finishing sixth in Liberec, Czech Republic, on the hill where in three months she will once again compete in the first women's World Championship ski jumping event.
    "I had one pretty good jump, so it was close," Van said. "The good jump was like my last jump in Germany. It's like I finally figured [the jump] out. I felt like it was the second jump of the competition and I just had to do what I needed to do and hoped for the best."
    The competition, which was won by Ulrike Graessler of Germany, was the women's first taste of competition on the Czech hills, which are, according to Van, very unique.

LINDSEY VAN led the U.S. Ski Jumping Team in a Continental Cup competition Friday, finishing sixth in Liberec, Czech Republic, on the hill where in three months she will once again compete in the first women's World Championship ski jumping event.
    "I had one pretty good jump, so it was close," Van said. "The good jump was like my last jump in Germany. It's like I finally figured [the jump] out. I felt like it was the second jump of the competition and I just had to do what I needed to do and hoped for the best."
    The competition, which was won by Ulrike Graessler of Germany, was the women's first taste of competition on the Czech hills, which are, according to Van, very unique.
    "It's a very unique hill so it takes a bit to figure it out. It has a really long and flat in-run and the takeoff is really short. Then you're only a foot and a half over the knoll and you're on the ground. So it's a really low flying hill," Van said. "You could pretty much land at any second. You really have to try and jump far."
    Allissa Johnson was next up for the U.S. women in 12th, Jessica Jerome was 17th, Abby Hughes was 20th and Avery Ardovino was 24th.
    According to Van, the competition was incredibly close, but surprisingly unaffected by high winds.
    "The field is pretty strong and it was really close today. It makes things really reliant on style as well," Van said. "Also, I thought this was going to be the place with the craziest wind, but when we had the competition, it was the most fair competition we've had."
    Germany's Magdalena Schnurr took second place in the competition and Izumi Yamada of Japan was third. The two sit in the top three with Graessler who leads the Continental Cup overall standings. Alissa Johnson is the highest ranked American in seventh. The women compete again on Saturday in the Czech Republic and will return Feb. 20 to compete in the inaugural women's ski jumping World Championship event.
    "I'm just trying to carry over my good jump today and do it tomorrow," Van said. "Hopefully I can have two good jumps."

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Jump 1	Jump 2	Points
1	43	4767	GRAESSLER Ulrike	1987	GER	94.5	96.5	247.5
2	41	4536	YAMADA Izumi	1978	JPN	94.0	95.0	247.0
3	42	5171	SCHNURR Magdalena	1992	GER	93.0	95.0	244.0
4	28	1921	RUNGGALDIER Elena	1990	ITA	92.0	93.0	237.0
5	40	4890	SAGEN Anette	1985	NOR	92.0	93.0	236.5
6	30	4637	VAN Lindsey-M	1984	USA	89.0	95.0	235.5
7	33	4538	WATASE Ayumi	1984	JPN	91.0	92.0	234.5
8	35	4929	VTIC Maja	1988	SLO	91.0	93.5	234.0
9	31	5312	DE LEEUW Nata	1991	CAN	90.0	91.0	229.5
10	38	1908	MOHR Jenna	1987	GER	90.0	90.0	225.5
10	36	4893	JAHR Line	1984	NOR	88.0	91.0	225.5
12	39	1909	SEIFRIEDSBERGER Jacqueline	1991	AUT	89.0	89.0	223.5
12	37	4883	JOHNSON Alissa	1987	USA	90.0	89.5	223.5
14	27	5453	SCHUEPBACH Malika	1993	SUI	90.0	90.5	220.0
15	26	5387	WINDMUELLER Sabrina	1987	SUI	88.0	87.5	216.5
16	13	4541	KANAI Rieko	1981	JPN	85.0	91.0	212.5
17	34	4632	JEROME Jessica	1987	USA	88.0	86.0	212.0
17	24	1952	SEYFARTH Juliane	1990	GER	86.5	87.0	212.0
19	32	5386	WINDMUELLER Bigna	1991	SUI	86.5	85.0	209.0
20	21	2682	HUGHES Abby	1989	USA	87.5	86.0	207.0
21	11	5498	MATTEL Coline	1995	FRA	84.0	87.0	204.5
22	23	1926	TANAKA Atsuko	1992	CAN	85.0	82.5	197.5
23	18	5452	FUCHS Salome	1993	SUI	82.5	84.0	197.0
24	29	4917	ARDOVINO Avery	1992	USA	80.5	85.0	186.5
25	25	5754	ITOH Yuuki	1993	JPN	81.5	80.0	184.5
26	3	5483	DOLEZELOVA Michaela	1994	CZE	78.0	81.5	175.5
27	15	5428	ENGER Gyda	1994	NOR	78.0	80.5	174.0
28	1	1916	TEPES Anja	1991	SLO	77.5	75.0	161.5
29	5	1914	PUSTKOVA Vladena	1992	CZE	78.5	72.0	157.5
30	14	5401	SPRAKEHAUG Silje	1991	NOR	80.5	62.0	127.5
31	19	5388	INSAM Evelyn	1994	ITA	75.5		80.5
32	8	5389	SENONER Simona	1993	ITA	75.0		77.5
33	6	1919	STUFFER Barbara	1989	ITA	74.5		77.0
34	20	4677	WILLIS Katie	1991	CAN	73.5		76.5
35	12	5005	POGRAJC Manja	1994	SLO	73.5		71.5
36	10	5930	LUNDBY Maren	1994	NOR	71.5		70.5
37	17	1911	HAEFELE Anna	1989	GER	71.5		70.0
38	16	5649	ESPIAU Caroline	1992	FRA	69.0		65.0
39	22	5015	VUIK Wendy	1988	NED	68.5		64.0
40	9	5473	THOMAE Lara	1993	NED	68.0		60.5
41	7	5763	ZOTOVA Maria	1984	RUS	61.0		44.0
42	2	5707	MIKOVA Lucie	1994	CZE	54.0		28.5
43	4	6054	DEJMKOVA Natalie	1996	CZE	49.0		17.5