U.S. Nationals: Jitloff claims GS championship

SUGARLOAF, Maine — Tim Jitloff's season first began looking good when Nationals started, and it just continues to improve. Tuesday he won the GS championship.
    Jitloff grabbed the first-run lead of the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championship race, but it wasn't until he inspected the second course set by his coach that he began to believe he could win. With junior racer Tommy Ford breathing down his neck, "Jit," charged from top to bottom of a fast and open course down Sugarloaf's Narrow Gauge trail for his first national championship. That gave him the cycle for the title series, having been third in the slalom that opened the event and second in the combined.
  "I thought it was a good run," said Jitloff, "but when I got to the bottom it was completely quiet." He turned, looked at the scoreboard and saw the "1" in front of his name and let out a shout, pumped his fist and let people know he was mighty glad to be the 2008 giant slalom champion.
  Ford, named Ski Racing's Junior Alpine Skier of the Year at a banquet Easter evening, showed why he had earned the prize matching Jitloff split for split in both the morning and afternoon runs down the sun splashed race hill. He finished one tenth of a second back and gave Jitloff all he could handle.

SUGARLOAF, Maine — Tim Jitloff's season first began looking good when Nationals started, and it just continues to improve. Tuesday he won the GS championship.
    Jitloff grabbed the first-run lead of the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championship race, but it wasn't until he inspected the second course set by his coach that he began to believe he could win. With junior racer Tommy Ford breathing down his neck, "Jit," charged from top to bottom of a fast and open course down Sugarloaf's Narrow Gauge trail for his first national championship. That gave him the cycle for the title series, having been third in the slalom that opened the event and second in the combined.
  "I thought it was a good run," said Jitloff, "but when I got to the bottom it was completely quiet." He turned, looked at the scoreboard and saw the "1" in front of his name and let out a shout, pumped his fist and let people know he was mighty glad to be the 2008 giant slalom champion.
  Ford, named Ski Racing's Junior Alpine Skier of the Year at a banquet Easter evening, showed why he had earned the prize matching Jitloff split for split in both the morning and afternoon runs down the sun splashed race hill. He finished one tenth of a second back and gave Jitloff all he could handle.
  For the most part, Ford downplayed what should be considered a remarkable result for a kid five days into his 19th year.
    "Yeah, I'm skiing well," he allowed. His first run was "pretty solid," and things went well. Ford was a triple junior champion last season and just missed a podium at this season's World Junior Championships in Spain. Now he's got his first big league podium finish against the senior class.
  Colby College grad and local favorite Warner Nickerson, who knows Sugarloaf likely better than any other racer in Tuesday's field, got third place.
    "To do it here in front of the fam and some of the old buddies is really awesome. It’s really a great experience to come back to the Loaf and have a beautiful day," Nickerson said.
    Nickerson also had plenty of praise for Ford's skiing.   
    "He has turned it on the past two weeks," he said. "Tommy Ford has always been a phenomenal skier. But in the last two weeks its been impressive. Every run of GS he’s taken has been exceptional. "
    But the day belonged to Jitloff, who has struggled through an incredibly difficult season punctuated by the discovery that his mother had cancer.
    "I haven’t gotten a win in a long time and that feels really, really good. Thank god."
    His last win had come in a NorAm a year ago and his podium finishes could be counted on one hand. He said he had been "clawing" his way back into the U.S. Ski Team picture, and had a premonition he might win after seeing the second course set by his coach, Pete Korfiatis.    
  "This is totally satisfying," he said. "I had a great game plan. And I executed it. There’s no BS, man. … With the course set I looked right at it and said ‘oh my god, I know exactly what I’ve got to do. I know how I’m going to feel going through it.’ It didn’t necessarily feel that way coming down because a couple of times I got out of control. But that is satisfying. I said 'I’m gonna do it' and I did it.
    "It was one of those sets where you just have to throw it down the hill and I love those. … When I slipped down I saw [Korfiatis] in the tent here, I was like, 'Dude, nice work.' This is awesome."   
    Jitloff said having Ford and a group of about five racers within range of overtaking him meant there could be no holding back on the second run. "I said I’ve gotta go full gas. I’ve blown enough races and I’ve had success at enough races that I’ve come to terms with you either do it or you don’t."
    In the battle for the GS championship, he got it done.
    And Mom's doing pretty well, too.

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	1	534959	JITLOFF Tim	1985	USA	1:03.88	1:00.79	2:04.67	8.67
2	5	531799	FORD Tommy	1989	USA	1:04.06	1:00.71	2:04.77	9.38
3	2	534038	NICKERSON Warner	1981	USA	1:04.53	1:01.69	2:06.22	19.61
4	8	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:04.89	1:01.49	2:06.38	20.74
5	7	533397	ZAMANSKY Jake	1981	USA	1:04.29	1:02.20	2:06.49	21.52
6	26	532554	PHILLIPS Andrew	1989	USA	1:05.33	1:01.29	2:06.62	22.43
7	11	530874	GANONG Travis	1988	USA	1:05.01	1:01.71	2:06.72	23.14
8	23	930107	GREGORAK Will	1990	USA	1:05.08	1:01.66	2:06.74	23.28
9	21	530644	HAMMER Maximilian	1988	USA	1:04.98	1:01.95	2:06.93	24.62
10	10	533739	MARSHALL Cody	1982	USA	1:05.37	1:01.93	2:07.30	27.23
11	17	533931	EPSTEIN Paul	1982	USA	1:05.68	1:01.69	2:07.37	27.73
12	16	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN	1:05.36	1:02.04	2:07.40	27.94
13	18	534508	CHODOUNSKY David	1984	USA	1:05.69	1:01.83	2:07.52	28.79
14	20	530326	WILSON Ryan	1987	USA	1:05.89	1:01.64	2:07.53	28.86
15	12	533842	FRANCIS Kevin	1982	USA	1:05.39	1:02.17	2:07.56	29.07
16	25	530808	GILBERT Erik	1986	USA	1:06.22	1:01.44	2:07.66	29.78
17	29	934572	SCHLEPER Hunter	1991	USA	1:05.97	1:01.78	2:07.75	30.41
18	13	534289	FRANK Chris	1983	USA	1:06.82	1:01.03	2:07.85	31.12
19	28	530925	HELDMAN Bump	1988	USA	1:06.44	1:01.71	2:08.15	33.23
20	30	530645	HARRIS Martin	1988	USA	1:06.67	1:01.57	2:08.24	33.87
21	31	530262	LUND Jacob	1987	USA	1:06.52	1:01.77	2:08.29	34.22
22	42	534165	JOHNSON Erik	1983	USA	1:06.97	1:01.51	2:08.48	35.56
23	59	531452	BIESEMEYER Thomas	1989	USA	1:06.74	1:01.97	2:08.71	37.19
24	22	534748	MCDONALD Paul	1984	USA	1:06.89	1:01.83	2:08.72	37.26
25	39	530641	FINK-DEBRAY Miles	1988	USA	1:06.77	1:02.78	2:09.55	43.12
25	35	530214	FORD William	1987	USA	1:06.99	1:02.56	2:09.55	43.12
27	90	532720	SMALL Jason	1985	USA	1:07.21	1:02.64	2:09.85	45.23
28	41	532165	LEAFE Trevor	1989	USA	1:07.35	1:02.70	2:10.05	46.65
29	46	934502	ANKENY Michael	1991	USA	1:07.40	1:02.87	2:10.27	48.20
30	15	530837	KELLEY Tim	1986	USA	1:07.68	1:02.62	2:10.30	48.41
31	51	534698	BECKMANN Christopher	1986	USA	1:07.44	1:02.87	2:10.31	48.48
32	54	531145	SPENST Taggart	1988	USA	1:07.22	1:03.47	2:10.69	51.16
33	32	530828	HUGHES Stefan	1986	USA	1:07.25	1:03.45	2:10.70	51.23
34	37	533903	BROWN Ben	1982	USA	1:07.48	1:03.45	2:10.93	52.86
35	68	930024	MAPLE Wiley	1990	USA	1:07.77	1:03.60	2:11.37	55.96
36	40	530920	SWENSSON Joey	1986	USA	1:07.62	1:03.88	2:11.50	56.88
37	53	532270	MCLAUGHRY Luke	1989	USA	1:07.90	1:03.73	2:11.63	57.80
38	67	930170	LAMB Max	1990	USA	1:07.58	1:04.46	2:12.04	60.69
39	44	534901	ASOIAN Nathan	1985	USA	1:08.33	1:03.83	2:12.16	61.54
40	63	511079	ZUMBRUNN Thomas	1983	SUI	1:08.46	1:04.10	2:12.56	64.36
41	70	934551	MOFFAT Keith	1991	USA	1:08.51	1:04.35	2:12.86	66.48
42	65	930188	MARSHALL Tucker	1990	USA	1:08.65	1:04.23	2:12.88	66.62
43	60	930040	BAKER Jake	1990	USA	1:07.88	1:05.10	2:12.98	67.33
44	58	534126	CHRISTOPHER Jason	1983	USA	1:08.57	1:05.32	2:13.89	73.75
45	84	6530115	CHRISTIANSON Kieffer	1992	USA	1:08.97	1:05.08	2:14.05	74.88
46	64	220658	MORTON Kenneth	1986	GBR	1:09.14	1:05.31	2:14.45	77.70
47	82	934555	MULHERN Liam	1991	USA	1:09.18	1:05.35	2:14.53	78.27
48	86	6530250	MORSE Ben	1992	USA	1:09.58	1:05.97	2:15.55	85.47
49	73	530117	SHAMPENY Kristopher	1986	USA	1:10.14	1:05.55	2:15.69	86.46
50	85	530729	CARROLL James Finley	1988	USA	1:10.03	1:05.71	2:15.74	86.81
51	49	930029	ACOSTA Christopher	1990	USA	1:09.36	1:06.41	2:15.77	87.02
52	88	930023	COFFEY Sam	1990	USA	1:09.43	1:07.53	2:16.96	95.42
53	87	930205	NELSON Joey	1990	USA	1:10.13	1:07.29	2:17.42	98.67
54	89	934643	GOLDBERG Jared	1991	USA	1:17.67	1:06.03	2:23.70	143.00
55	91	500059	JOHANSSON Per	1971	SWE	1:14.82	1:11.24	2:26.06	159.65
56	24	534534	VEENIS Scott	1984	USA	1:25.70	1:02.25	2:27.95	173.00

 

Did not start 1st run :

MENARD Leo (USA)

Did not finish 1st run :

LOVE John (USA), MASSIE Marc (USA), BARTELS Greg (USA), VEST-BURTON Taylor (USA), BRAUN Jake (USA), LAWLESS Jeremy (USA), MCNEILL Jason (USA), FLOWERS Kitt (USA), DANIELS Nick (USA), FRIEDMAN Bryon (USA), KULLAS Nicholaus (USA), SWEETSER Samuel (USA), JOHNSON Karl (USA), CHRISTIANSON Charles (USA), HARDY Greg (USA), BRANDENBURG Will (USA)

Did not finish 2nd run :

SYROVATKA Mark (CAN), HIGGINS Sean (USA), JONES Alex (USA), ELLIOT Jeremy (USA), ROBERTSON Aaron (USA), JAMPOLSKY Grant (USA), KERR Errol (USA), HARDY Colton (USA), KELLEY Robby (USA), CASTON Marcus (USA), HIGGINS Sean (USA), KEMP John (USA), LAGER Hermann (NOR), BROWN Zachary (USA), KASPER Nolan (USA), THORSON Tague (USA), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA)

Disqualified 1st run :

LANNING Thomas (tj) (USA)