Michael Ankeny ran off with the men's J2 National slalom championship.
    Some might have considered it a gamble, but when Fischer skis delivered a quiver of the new hole in the tip RC4 WC SL slalom skis, Ankeny was the only racer who decided to use them race day.
"Yeah, I guess it was a gamble," he said, "but I was on them yesterday and they just clicked right away."
    They clicked pretty good on race day, too as Ankeny claimed his first win after three podiums at the J2 Nationals by a whopping 3.28 seconds.
    "In the first run I was really going after it," he said, "I knew there was competition from Team Iced Out. Those guys have been so good all Nationals. But then all those guys went out and I was up by two and a half seconds."
    He said he was "pretty nervous" before the second run. "I didn't want to mess up. I skied pretty solid."
    Claiming second on the day was Nick Daniels with Ben Morse in third. Ankeny also won the combined, or overall, event based on race points in downhill, GS and slalom with a low 9.81 total. Brennan Rubie was second at 82.20 and Ben Morse third at 89.84.

MICHAEL ANKENY ran off with the men's J2 National slalom championship.
    Some might have considered it a gamble, but when Fischer skis delivered a quiver of the new hole in the tip RC4 WC SL slalom skis, Ankeny was the only racer who decided to use them race day.
"Yeah, I guess it was a gamble," he said, "but I was on them yesterday and they just clicked right away."
    They clicked pretty good on race day, too as Ankeny claimed his first win after three podiums at the J2 Nationals by a whopping 3.28 seconds.
    "In the first run I was really going after it," he said, "I knew there was competition from Team Iced Out. Those guys have been so good all Nationals. But then all those guys went out and I was up by two and a half seconds."
    He said he was "pretty nervous" before the second run. "I didn't want to mess up. I skied pretty solid."
    Claiming second on the day was Nick Daniels with Ben Morse in third. Ankeny also won the combined, or overall, event based on race points in downhill, GS and slalom with a low 9.81 total. Brennan Rubie was second at 82.20 and Ben Morse third at 89.84.
    Devon Delany got her first win of the championships, and second podium in two days with a no-nonsense set of runs in the women's slalom.
    "It seemed like a lot of the guys had skied out at the bottom of the course," she said, and she took that as a warning. "When inspecting it didn't look that turny but the coaches were radioing up from the bottom that the course was really tight and not to be afraid to go round, it'll pay-off. I guess it did."
    Delany got a two tenths of a second margin over Felicia Byers for the win and a chance to race against the World Cup team at the U.S. National Championships in a week. Abigail Fucigna got her second medal of the J2 title meet in third, a tenth and half behind a surprised Byers.
    Byers had previously won the downhill and super G and had said her slalom was "not that good," but after the first run she found herself in fourth.
    I was pretty shocked," she said. "Wow, I actually put one in there, so I said go for it, there's nothing to lose now."
    Her second-place finish gave her a miniscule 1.37 race point total for the three race combined. Delany got second with 43.21 and Delainey Ackerman was third at 60.70.

J2 Nationals

Men's Slalom
Aspen, Colo.,
March 11, 2008
1 Michael ANKENY USA      1:23.87
2 Nick DANIELS USA      1:27.15
3 Ben MORSE USA      1:27.55
4 Marc MASSIE USA      1:27.90
5 Taylor WUNSCH USA      1:28.04
6 Ryan COCHRAN-SIEGLE USA      1:28.94
7 Evan DIAMOND USA      1:28.95
8 Brennan RUBIE USA      1:29.16
9 Ryan MCCONNELL USA      1:29.23
10 Bobby FARRELL USA      1:29.28
11 Max MARNO USA      1:29.49
12 Coleman LIEB USA      1:29.63
13 David OWSLEY USA      1:29.78
14 Michael RADFORD USA      1:30.05
15 Kris HOPKINS USA      1:30.15
16 Hig ROBERTS USA      1:30.30
17 William ST. HILAIRE CAN      1:30.78
18 Gunnar SHAW USA      1:30.79
19 Taylor SHIFFRIN USA      1:31.24
20 Matt BONNER USA      1:31.53
21 Taber ENGELKEN USA      1:31.98
22 Matthew MCKENNA USA      1:32.68
23 Alex JERRED USA      1:32.93
24 Dustin MARTIN USA      1:33.02
25 Jake PERKINS USA      1:33.87
26 Dane JENSEN USA      1:34.58
27 Sean HORNER USA      1:34.65
28 Victor MAJOR USA      1:35.02
29 Dylan ROGERS USA      1:35.38
30 Sam GLAISHER USA      1:35.43
31 Jim RYAN USA      1:35.44
32 John ZINSER USA      1:35.98
33 Cody UNICUME USA      1:35.99
34 Carl NOGES USA      1:36.35
35 Aaron WIGGINS USA      1:36.98
36 Paul WARNER USA      1:38.39
37 Jared GOLDBERG USA      1:38.44
38 Derek STRAND USA      1:39.07
39 Cole WRIGHT USA      1:40.50
40 Riley BERMAN USA      1:41.70
41 Cameron SMITH USA      1:41.93
42 Keith MOFFAT USA      1:44.39
43 Russell LORANG USA      1:51.15
44 Graham COLLINS USA      1:53.56
45 Robert CONE USA      2:26.08
 
Women's Slalom
Aspen, Colo.,
March 11, 2008
1 Devin DELANEY USA      1:29.13
2 Felicia BYERS USA      1:29.33
3 Abigail FUCIGNA USA      1:29.48
4 Lizzie KISTLER USA      1:29.60
5 Hayley BEST USA      1:30.20
6 Cate KISTLER USA      1:31.61
7 Joanna COFFEY USA      1:31.95
8 Emily JAMES USA      1:32.04
9 Delainey ACKERMAN USA      1:32.58
10 Zoe LIVINGSTON USA      1:32.59
11 Gabrielle ANTHONY USA      1:33.19
11 Cassady ROBERTS USA      1:33.19
13 Rose CASTON USA      1:33.85
14 Cayla WEBER USA      1:35.11
15 Lindsey ANDERSON USA      1:35.12
16 Aylin WOODWARD USA      1:35.33
17 Kelsey REDDEN USA      1:36.03
18 Samantha HALL USA      1:36.09
19 Mary SACKBAUER USA      1:36.65
20 Sara ANDREWS USA      1:36.95
21 Michelle SEARES USA      1:36.96
22 Anna MARNO USA      1:37.74
23 Emily HAMMEL USA      1:41.80
24 Jacqueline MAIER USA      1:44.59
25 Christie PATIENT USA      1:48.83
26 Annie LEITER USA      1:49.61
27 Paige MINANA USA      1:52.39
28 Rylee BURROWS USA      1:53.50
29 Amelia ROWLAND USA      1:57.17
30 Shane MCLEAN USA      1:57.60
31 Abby GHENT USA      2:17.20