U.S. Nat'ls: Jitloff upholds team honor in final title race

With Ted Ligety sidelined and Jimmy Cochran hiking in the first run it fell to Tim Jitloff to preserve the honor of the U.S. Ski Team in the final run of the final event of a spectacularly unusual National Championships.

With the Mount Redoubt volcano quiet for the day the set up was delicious. Just behind Jitloff after the first run was Halfdan Falkum-Hansen and, yes, he is Norwegian, a freshman at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, skiing more or less at home and very talented. Warner Nickerson, like slalom winner David Chodounsky, a graduated NCAA star, sat third.

Jitloff was on an island and he had them right where he wanted them.With Ted Ligety sidelined and Jimmy Cochran hiking in the first run it fell to Tim Jitloff to preserve the honor of the U.S. Ski Team in the final run of the final event of a spectacularly unusual National Championships.

With the Mount Redoubt volcano quiet for the day the set up was delicious. Just behind Jitloff after the first run was Halfdan Falkum-Hansen and, yes, he is Norwegian, a freshman at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, skiing more or less at home and very talented. Warner Nickerson, like slalom winner David Chodounsky, a graduated NCAA star, sat third.

Jitloff was on an island and he had them right where he wanted them.

Jitloff put the win away, winning both runs for his second title (combined) of the meet and his second consecutive GS title.

Seems some others had points to make as well. Junior Tommy Ford upheld U.S. team honor with second and pushed Nickerson to third by a couple of tenths.

Will Gregorak, like Ford a junior, snared fourth when Falkum-Hansen ran into enough trouble to get 22nd place in the second run and drop to fifth. Nolan Kasper got sixth.

With his first World Cup top five coming in late February, Jitloff has been on something of a tear, perhaps the result of finally dialing in equipment (Fischer) that was new to him this season.

“I would say that’s fair,” he said. “I did quite a bit of dialing in at Portillo (in pre-season). But they called for a different style so it was a progression throughout the year. I’m still figuring it out.”

He was also amped to be collecting his second straight GS crown.

“I’m really happy to defend the giant slalom title,” he said.  “With the combined title I picked up Sunday, this is my third U.S. championship, so I’m picking them up here and there.”

Most impressively, he won a race he was suppose to win, something much easier said than done.

“Jit put together two solid runs,” said head coach Sasha Rearick. “His second one had a lot more punch and that was really good to see.”

The coach was pretty impressed to see the juniors making serious challenges as well.

“I’m also really stoked on how the young guys skied. Tommy Ford had a great race,” said coach Rearick. “He did a ton of work this winter and it was cool to see him skiing the way we know he can. Then there’s Will Gregorak and Nolan Kasper. I haven’t been able to see a lot of skiing from those guys this winter, but they both really impressed me here.”
 
It’s always good to get an “atta-boy” from the ski team’s head honcho. It’s even better when you’re footing your own bill to have improved the chances to make the team, as Nickerson did.

Then, just like that, the most memorable, perhaps of all-time, U.S. Alpine Championships was over and 2000 folks started working on getting out of Anchorage in the wake of an airport closing volcano and a series of snowstorms.

To say the conditions taxed the organizers would be understatement. A pair of FIS downhills and a pair of title race super G’s wound up on the cutting room floor in the wake of Redoubt’s ash and a tenacious weather pattern of snow and fog.

“I can’t say enough about what the folks at Alyeska did for us,” said Rearick.  “They take tremendous pride in what they do for ski racing and it certainly shows. We were dished about the worst weather conditions you could possibly imagine and they did everything to make three great races happen for these guys (and three more for the women). It was awesome.”

Jitloff, among a number of young studs ready to make their mark, will head off for a brief vacation before putting his nose back into the training grindstone.

“Before I do anything, I’m taking two weeks off to surf in Costa Rica, but after that I’m moving into a condo in Park City and spending the summer in the gym,” said Jitloff, who plans to take full advantage of the USSA Center of Excellence, set to open later this spring.

Jitloff’s win gave the west a narrow 1222-1211pt margin for the race and padded a huge 2774-1730 margin for the Tom Garner Regions Cup title over the east. Rocky-Central was third at 1112.

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U.S. National Championships

Men’s Giant Slalom
Alyeska, Alaska
March 31, 2009
1 Tim JITLOFF, USA/85    2:17.73
2 Tommy FORD, USA/89    2:18.48
3 Warner NICKERSON, USA/81    2:18.67
4 Will GREGORAK, USA/90    2:19.15
5 Halfdan FALKUM-HANSEN, NOR/86    2:19.50
6 Nolan KASPER, USA/89    2:19.71
7 Chris FRANK, USA/83    2:19.90
8 Marco SULLIVAN, USA/80    2:20.00
9 Grant JAMPOLSKY, USA/89    2:20.30
10 Andrew WEIBRECHT, USA/86    2:20.70
11 Egil ISMAR, NOR/86    2:20.91
12 David CHODOUNSKY, USA/84    2:21.27
12 Erik  FISHER, USA/85 1’21.27
14 Dan LOMAN, USA/86    2:21.53
15 Trevor LEAFE, USA/89    2:21.54
16 Clayton KRUEGER, USA/89    2:21.59
17 Taggart SPENST, USA/88    2:21.60
18 Max LAMB, USA/90    2:21.70
19 Nicholaus KULLAS, USA/87    2:21.73
26 Spencer NELSON, USA/90    2:21.73
21 Nathan ASOIAN, USA/85    2:21.92
22 Joey SWENSSON, USA/86    2:22.01
23 Michael RADFORD, USA/91    2:22.22
24 Ryan WOLOSYN, USA/87    2:22.34
25 Ace TARBERRY, USA/89    2:22.78
26 Jake BAKER, USA/90    2:23.42
27 David OWSLEY, USA/91    2:23.63
28 Kieffer CHRISTIANSON, USA/92    2:23.68
29 Hig ROBERTS, USA/91    2:24.40
30 Jared GOLDBERG, USA/91    2:24.55
31 Thomas BIESEMEYER, USA/89    2:24.62
32 Marc MASSIE, USA/91    2:24.92
33 Taylor WUNSCH, USA/91    2:25.05
34 John LOVE, USA/87    2:25.51
35 Keith MOFFAT, USA/91    2:25.54
36 Bryce BENNETT, USA/92    2:25.71
37 William RANDALL, USA/90    2:25.87
38 Chad LAWRENCE, USA/90    2:26.00
39 Hunter BLACK, USA/90    2:26.10
40 Christopher ACOSTA, USA/90    2:26.23
41 Liam MULHERN, USA/91    2:26.44
42 Max MARNO, USA/91    2:27.00
43 Sam GLAISHER, USA/92    2:27.40
44 George ROLFS, USA/90    2:27.52
45 Ben MORSE, USA/92    2:27.76
46 Derek STRAND, USA/91    2:28.13
47 Jake BRAUN, USA/88    2:29.67
48 Peter OSTROSKI, USA/89    2:30.40
49 Travis KUSTER, USA/91    2:31.00
50 Scott SNOW, USA/93    2:31.65
51 Paul WARNER, USA/91    2:34.74
52 Cory MCCONNELL, USA/88    2:36.00
53 Robby KELLEY, USA/90    2:36.19
54 Sean HIGGINS, USA/90    2:40.58
55 Jimmy COCHRAN, USA/81    2:44.93