Ford Defends National GS Title, Ligety third

The 2011 U.S. Alpine National Championships kicked off today (March 31) in Winter Park, Colo as Tommy Ford successfully defended his 2010 title, besting World Cup GS champion Ted Ligety in third place.

“I knew it was going to be little rough coming into it so I just tried to remember the old days and put it into the rut as early as I can and stay as fluid as possible,” said Ford of the soft conditions following recent storms in the area. “It’s hard to have a clean run in those conditions, but I did well with it.”

Ford, who recorded a combined time of two minutes, 22.24 seconds on the bumpy, freshly coated course, made his move in the second run after standing third in the first lap. He just edged teammate Tim Jitloff in second by 0.09 seconds of combined time. A mistake in the middle of the second run pushed first-run leader Ligety three-tenths of a second behind Ford.

“It feels good [to defend the title],” said Ford, who secured two World Cup scoring results this season. “Ted’s been skiing well all year and I’ve been struggling a little bit and it’s just nice to end on that note.”

Today’s win marked Ford’s fourth consecutive National Championships win after securing titles in the slalom, combined and GS.

“Getting on the podium with that mistake was good and I had a good first run,” said the always competitive Ligety after catching a gate with his boot during the second run. “Tommy is a tough skier so it’s no surprise that he won it.”

Chris Frank, hot off of his super combined win at the Canadian National Championships, just missed the podium in fourth place, 2.20 seconds adrift.

This season’s NorAm super G title winner, Ryan Cochran-Siegle was the top junior in ninth place overall, 2.79 seconds off the winning pace. “It’s pretty fun, I never get to see the top guys so coming here and meeting up is cool to see the next step and see an incredible skier like Ted,” said Cochran-Siegle, son of 1972 Olympic gold medalist Barbara Cochran. “I think Nationals is one of the coolest things. The past couple years it’s always been a goal to be here so getting here is awesome.”

The wear of an extremely busy and successful season (World Cup and World Championship GS titles) could be seen in Ligety’s face as he completed his final competitive run of 2011.

“Nationals is fun, it’s cool for the young guys to be able to race against guys like myself, but we are so cooked by this time it’s hard for to take it too serious,” said an upbeat Ligety. “I brought one pair of skis, scrapped them myself, didn’t brush them. It’s just hard to get motivated after World Cup Finals to race again, but it’s so cool for the younger guys. I definitely enjoyed that when I was younger, being able to ski with Bode and stuff.”
 
The Winter Park area has recorded more than two feet of new snow in the last four days, including three inches this morning, as representatives from more than 400 of the country’s club programs made their way to end their season with a band in the Colorado Rockies.

National Championship competition continues in Winter Park tomorrow with the women’s giant slalom. Men’s and women’s super G races are scheduled for Saturday, April 2. Slalom races are slated for Sunday, April 3.

The SCOOP
Equipment
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Ford, Fischer/Fischer/fischer
2 Jitloff, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
3 Ligety, Head/Head/Head

It is the fourth straight National Championship for Tommy Ford having won titles in his last three US Championship races last season at Lake Placid, finishing first in slalom, combined and GS. … He finished second in GS in 2008 and 2009 as well.

It is the sixth career US National medal for Tim Jitloff including GS championships in 2008 and 2009 and the combined championship in 2009.

It is the seventh US Championship medal for Ted Ligety, but his first third place finish. … He won the slalom in 2005,  the slalom and combined in 2006, the combined and GS in 2007 and was second in combined in 2007.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle is the top junior competitor in ninth place. … He has one better US Championship result, a sixth in super G last season.

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	4	531799	FORD Tommy	1989	USA	1:09.70	1:12.54	2:22.24	8.00
2	2	534959	JITLOFF Tim	1985	USA	1:09.00	1:13.33	2:22.33	8.55
3	3	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:08.67	1:13.87	2:22.54	9.83
4	8	534289	FRANK Chris	1983	USA	1:10.51	1:13.93	2:24.44	21.46
5	5	103512	FRISCH Jeffrey	1984	CAN	1:09.31	1:15.20	2:24.51	21.88
6	26	930160	KELLEY Robby	1990	USA	1:11.11	1:13.72	2:24.83	23.84
7	47	930194	MCNEALUS Andrew	1990	USA	1:11.78	1:13.14	2:24.92	24.39
8	12	530651	STIEGLER Seppi	1988	USA	1:11.42	1:13.60	2:25.02	25.00
9	16	6530319	COCHRAN-SIEGLE Ryan	1992	USA	1:10.80	1:14.23	2:25.03	25.06
10	22	53859	TRIENDL Armin	1989	AUT	1:10.96	1:14.17	2:25.13	25.68
11	29	934568	RUBIE Brennan	1991	USA	1:11.42	1:13.74	2:25.16	25.86
11	7	930105	GRANSTROM Colby	1990	USA	1:10.52	1:14.64	2:25.16	25.86
13	13	532138	KASPER Nolan	1989	USA	1:10.47	1:14.83	2:25.30	26.72
14	28	530758	COHEE Nick	1988	USA	1:11.43	1:13.93	2:25.36	27.08
14	17	534507	CHRISTIANSON Charles	1984	USA	1:10.60	1:14.76	2:25.36	27.08
16	35	934643	GOLDBERG Jared	1991	USA	1:11.77	1:13.79	2:25.56	28.31
17	24	934502	ANKENY Michael	1991	USA	1:11.12	1:14.45	2:25.57	28.37
18	42	934525	FLOWERS Kitt	1991	USA	1:12.23	1:13.40	2:25.63	28.73
19	37	6530117	CONE Robert	1992	USA	1:11.96	1:13.79	2:25.75	29.47
20	34	934523	ENGEL Mark	1991	USA	1:11.94	1:13.91	2:25.85	30.08
21	31	934566	ROBERTS Hig	1991	USA	1:12.26	1:13.64	2:25.90	30.39
22	11	533948	COLE Adam	1982	USA	1:11.25	1:15.15	2:26.40	33.44
23	50	6530498	MCKENNA Christopher	1993	USA	1:12.61	1:13.94	2:26.55	34.36
24	33	421797	THEODORSEN Espen	1988	NOR	1:12.19	1:14.47	2:26.66	35.03
25	30	934524	FARRELL Bobby	1991	USA	1:11.95	1:14.82	2:26.77	35.71
26	43	930024	MAPLE Wiley	1990	USA	1:12.15	1:14.66	2:26.81	35.95
27	20	421787	SALBU Chriss	1988	NOR	1:11.77	1:15.37	2:27.14	37.97
28	36	530920	SWENSSON Joe	1986	USA	1:12.29	1:14.87	2:27.16	38.09
29	58	930073	COXON Kyle	1990	USA	1:12.74	1:14.84	2:27.58	40.66
30	49	930047	BLACK Hunter	1990	USA	1:12.75	1:15.46	2:28.21	44.52
31	40	930133	HIGGINS Sean	1990	USA	1:13.01	1:15.39	2:28.40	45.68
32	44	934740	WUNSCH Taylor	1991	USA	1:13.06	1:15.74	2:28.80	48.12
33	32	532554	PHILLIPS Andrew	1989	USA	1:13.12	1:15.87	2:28.99	49.29
34	41	6530104	BENNETT Bryce	1992	USA	1:13.11	1:15.94	2:29.05	49.65
35	27	934547	MARNO Max	1991	USA	1:13.79	1:15.45	2:29.24	50.81
36	57	930214	OLIVER Coley	1990	USA	1:13.52	1:16.13	2:29.65	53.32
37	66	6530598	SNOW Scott	1993	USA	1:13.38	1:17.04	2:30.42	58.03
38	60	934534	HORNER Sean	1991	USA	1:14.27	1:17.29	2:31.56	65.01
39	67	930201	MILLER Mark	1990	USA	1:14.31	1:17.53	2:31.84	66.72
40	55	6530167	SHIFFRIN Taylor	1992	USA	1:15.94	1:15.94	2:31.88	66.96
41	45	930188	MARSHALL Tucker	1990	USA	1:13.52	1:18.42	2:31.94	67.33
42	85	934571	SCHINDLER James	1991	USA	1:15.23	1:16.99	2:32.22	69.04
43	93	530815	DUNSTAN Shawn	1988	USA	1:14.93	1:17.34	2:32.27	69.35
44	79	6530187	MAJOR Victor	1992	USA	1:14.30	1:18.35	2:32.65	71.67
45	89	6530157	PTACH Scott	1992	USA	1:14.91	1:18.42	2:33.33	75.83
46	68	6530009	OGLE Jay	1991	USA	1:15.72	1:17.93	2:33.65	77.79
47	65	532232	MCDONALD Fletcher	1989	USA	1:16.07	1:17.77	2:33.84	78.95
48	88	6531026	JONES Alec	1994	USA	1:15.91	1:18.25	2:34.16	80.91
49	75	6530454	FARROW Tanner	1993	USA	1:16.09	1:18.33	2:34.42	82.50
50	81	6530539	WRIGHT Bronson	1993	USA	1:16.25	1:18.34	2:34.59	83.54
51	62	934722	STRAND Derek	1991	USA	1:15.20	1:19.50	2:34.70	84.21
52	52	410365	BARWOOD Adam	1992	NZE	1:13.64	1:21.39	2:35.03	86.23
53	82	6530160	RYAN Chase	1992	USA	1:16.66	1:18.77	2:35.43	88.68
54	69	6530399	O BRIEN Cannon	1992	USA	1:17.94	1:18.09	2:36.03	92.35
55	73	6530481	KAMPHUIS Colin	1993	USA	1:16.23	1:20.79	2:37.02	98.40
56	83	6530440	CLEASON James	1993	USA	1:17.24	1:20.58	2:37.82	103.29
57	95	6530674	RASMUSSEN Eric	1993	USA	1:19.10	1:20.95	2:40.05	116.93
58	91	6530865	HAFERMAN Eric	1994	USA	1:20.93	1:20.68	2:41.61	126.48
59	74	6530338	LENTZ Christoph	1992	USA	1:24.43	1:18.79	2:43.22	136.32
Did not start 2nd run
	21	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA
Did not start 1st run
	25	421871	SANDVIK Eian	1989	NOR
	19	530641	FINK-DEBRAY Miles	1988	USA
	10	421840	HAUG Andreas Willumsen	1989	NOR
Did not finish 2nd run
	96	6530847	DEAN Austin	1994	USA
	94	6530430	BAKER Ross	1993	USA
	92	40536	DEMSCHAR Daniel	1994	AUS
	87	930123	HARRIS Reilly	1990	USA
	86	6530283	GLAISHER Sam	1992	USA
	84	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA
	80	40553	CHEVALIER Luc Henri	1992	AUS
	77	151099	SYROVATKA Mark	1989	CZE
	72	934577	SMITH Brennan	1991	USA
	70	6530234	MARSHALL Craig	1992	USA
	63	6530108	BROOKS Dylan	1992	USA
	56	930237	ROLFS George	1990	USA
	54	6530599	STRAND Matthew	1993	USA
	53	40489	LAIDLAW Luke	1992	AUS
	48	530722	BURKE Kamden	1988	USA
	46	410270	CAFE Tim	1987	NZE
	9	531452	BIESEMEYER Thomas	1989	USA
Did not finish 1st run
	90	40523	DEMSCHAR Dominic	1993	AUS
	78	934593	WRIGHT Cole	1991	USA
	76	6530453	DUPRATT Samuel	1993	USA
	71	301625	HONDA Hiroki	1982	JPN
	64	6530534	VIETZE Sandy	1993	USA
	61	6530486	KRAUSE Nicholas	1993	USA
	59	531181	THORSON Tague	1985	USA
	51	531145	SPENST Taggart	1988	USA
	39	930029	ACOSTA Christopher	1990	USA
	38	930170	LAMB Max	1990	USA
	23	530827	ELLIOT Jeremy	1988	USA
	18	530326	WILSON Ryan	1987	USA
	15	531156	TARBERRY Ace	1988	USA
	14	534508	CHODOUNSKY David	1984	USA
	6	534038	NICKERSON Warner	1981	USA
	1	930107	GREGORAK Will	1990	USA