Men’s NorAm SL: Stutz ends Zamansky’s run, earns first career NorAm win

Men’s NorAm SL: Stutz ends Zamansky’s run, earns first career NorAm win{mosimage}Canada’s Paul Stutz garnered his first career NorAm win in the first of two slalom competitions in Hunter Mountain, N.Y. on Wednesday. American Jake Zamansky’s streak of five consecutive FIS wins came to an end, but he helped spearhead another strong effort by the American contingent, as they took four of the top-five spots Wednesday.

First-year U.S. Ski Teamer Roger Brown, an alum of Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., nailed down a couple of solid runs in his second-place effort. He was followed closely by teammates Jesse Marshall and Evan Weiss, neither of whom have finished worse than sixth in any of the NorAm races this week.

Weiss has returned to the national team after competing for Dartmouth on the NCAA circuit last year, and despite a slow start to the season, his success at Hunter comes as no surprise to his coach Sasha Rearick. ‘Fundamentally, Evan has always been among the best skiers on our team … he’s just working at finding the fall line on race day’ said Rearick, ‘Evan’s first excellent run of the season was [yesterday in the] GS.’

Weiss built on his GS result in the slalom, earning a second-run win, and taking fourth overall.

U.S. C Team member Andrew Weibrecht’s 10th-place performance earned him best junior honors, and U.S. Development Team skier Stefan Hughes was the second-best junior in 22nd place, respectively.

Stutz’s last NorAm slalom was an exceptional sixth-place finish amid a field laden with World Cuppers at Keystone, Colorado in Novemeber. Since then, the Banff, Alberta-native has had a tough stretch vying for points on the World Cup tour. He raced World Cup slaloms at Beaver Creek, Madonna di Campiglio and Kranjska Gora, but didn’t finish a first run in any of those starts.

At Hunter, Stutz laid down the fastest first run, and his comfortable 0.65-second cushion was enough to hold off Brown on the second run and earn a 10-point result.

The NorAm Cup series in Hunter Mountain, N.Y. concludes with another slalom today.

HUNTER MOUNTAIN, N.Y.
MEN’S NORAM SLALOM JAN. 4, 2006

1 3 STUTZ, Paul CAN 46.73 (1) 47.11 (7) 1:33.84
2 7 BROWN, Roger P USA 47.38 (2) 47.05 (5) 1:34.43
3 22 MARSHALL, Jesse USA 48.08 (6) 46.91 (3) 1:34.99
4 21 WEISS, Evan C USA 48.27 (8) 46.81 (1) 1:35.08
5 12 ZAMANSKY, Jake USA 47.58 (4) 47.59 (13) 1:35.17
6 8 RIXON JR, Carl H USA 47.53 (3) 47.69 (18) 1:35.22
7 16 BARRETT, Scott CAN 48.51 (9) 47.25 (9) 1:35.76
8 6 MARSHALL, Cody B USA 48.05 (5) 48.09 (22) 1:36.14
9 27 HEINRICH-WALLACE, Mark USA 48.55 (11) 47.64 (16) 1:36.19
10 30 WEIBRECHT, Andrew USA 48.82 (13) 47.51 (11) 1:36.33