US Nat'ls: Sullivan claims DH title, juniors show strong

The 2009 U.S. Nationals will be talked about for a long, long time.

As the men’s downhill finished late Saturday the ash from the Mount Redoubt volcano started falling, and it came hard. Thats the kind of thing that sticks to the memory.

Like many, Marco Sullivan was late getting into Girdwood, the home of Alyeska and site of this season’s National Alpine Championships. His flight was delayed by the volcanic ash of Mount Redoubt, too.

It hardly mattered, as the race he really came for, the national downhill, was set back a half-dozen times, from the originally scheduled Friday and finally held today. Because of the backlog, caused by heavy snows, a minor blizzard and then fog, he got to run a training run in the morning in preparation for the race, after the women’s race, late this afternoon.
The 2009 U.S. Nationals will be talked about for a long, long time.

As the men’s downhill finished late Saturday the ash from the Mount Redoubt volcano started falling, and it came hard. That’s the kind of thing that sticks to the memory.

Like many, Marco Sullivan was late getting into Girdwood, the home of Alyeska and site of this season’s National Alpine Championships. His flight delayed by the volcanic ash of Mount Redoubt too.

It hardly mattered, as the race he really came for, the national downhill, was set back a half-dozen times, from the originally scheduled Friday and finally held today. Because of the backlog, caused by heavy snows, a minor blizzard and then fog, he got to run a single training run in the morning in preparation for the race, held after the women’s race late this afternoon.

He was ninth in the training run, coming home in one minute and eight point nine-nine seconds. He cut nearly a full second off that time for the race, finishing in 1:08.07 to best runner-up Erik Fisher by a third of a second and win his third national title regaining the crown he won on the same hill in 2007.

Jeremy Transue was third running his national championship podium total to three in downhills, all of them coming at Alyeska.

The excitement came right after the podium in the finish order as Ace Tarberry, with a previous best of 19th in any national title meet, posted fourth from the 45th start and Salt Lake’s Jared Goldberg, a first year JI, from the 51st start, was fifth. Another JI, Thomas Biesemeyer was sixth.

“Yeah, Marco didn’t take the training run all that seriously,” said head coach Sasha Rearick, ash-coated, wet and pretty concerned about being outside getting blanketed in a coat of volcanic ash.

“He skied really well, was aggressive off the the top and he has fast skis,” he capsualized. He also said there was one turn on the track, a sidehill turn, which Sullivan, Transue and Fisher all nailed, making the difference in the race.

“The top three executed that technical aspect very well,” the coach said.

As for the other top finishers, Rearick said the course did speed up some as a front moved through and it got colder, but added, “It was very exciting to see them step up. That one guy, I don’t even know his name. … Jared Goldberg. … He was very impressive. Generally, I was very pleased with what I saw.”

The bigger question quickly becomes, what about tomorrow?

“The men started about 5:45, and as soon as it got done the ash started falling. All we wanted to do was get inside before we die,” the coach said. “Tomorrow, I don’t know. The chairlifts can’t run, so it will be interesting. But after what I’ve seen here, I think these guys in Alaska can pull off anything.”

Ted Ligety suffered a right knee injury during the training run. Ligety will miss the remainder of the U.S. Championships and return to Park City for further evaluation, according to U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Medical Director Richard Quincy.

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US Alpine National Championships

Men’s Downhill
Alyeska, Alaska
March 28, 2009
1 Marco SULLIVAN, USA     1:08.07
2 Erik FISHER, USA    1:08.44
3 Jeremy TRANSUE, USA    1:08.51
4 Ace TARBERRY, USA    1:08.99
5 Jared GOLDBERG, USA    1:09.07
6 Thomas BIESEMEYER, USA    1:09.10
7 Timothy JITLOFF, USA    1:09.20
7 Kevin FRANCIS, USA    1:09.20
9 Nick DANIELS, USA    1:09.26
10 Chris FRANK, USA    1:09.44
11 Wiley MAPLE, USA    1:09.46
12 Andrew WEIBRECHT, USA    1:09.47
13 Michael ANKENY, USA    1:09.69
14 Sam COFFEY, USA    1:09.78
15 Joey SWENSSON, USA    1:09.81
16 John LOVE, USA    1:09.95
17 Greg BARTELS, USA    1:09.98
18 Brennan RUBIE, USA    1:10.00
19 David OWSLEY, USA    1:10.02
20 Nolan KASPER, USA    1:10.07
20 Jeremy ELLIOT, USA    1:10.07
22 Travis GANONG, USA    1:10.10
23 George ROLFS, USA    1:10.12
24 Bryon FRIEDMAN, USA    1:10.14
24 Will GREGORAK, USA    1:10.14
26 Dan LOMAN, USA    1:10.16
26 Colby GRANSTROM, USA    1:10.16
28 Danny MOORE, USA    1:10.32
29 Samuel SWEETSER, USA    1:10.36
30 William RANDALL, USA    1:10.39
31 Taylor WUNSCH, USA    1:10.41
32 Kieffer CHRISTIANSON, USA    1:10.52
33 Trevor LEAFE, USA    1:10.58
34 Tim KELLEY, USA/86    1:10.63
35 Keith MOFFAT, USA/91    1:10.76
36 Liam MULHERN, USA    1:10.81
37 Jake BAKER, USA    1:10.83
38 Scott SNOW, USA/93    1:10.84
39 Taggart SPENST, USA    1:10.86
40 Jimmy COCHRAN, USA/81    1:10.89
41 Cory MCCONNELL, USA    1:10.96
42 Ben MORSE, USA    1:11.04
43 Derek STRAND, USA    1:11.06
44 Max LAMB, USA    1:11.08
45 Mark SYROVATKA, CAN/89    1:11.20
46 Ryan MCCONNELL, USA    1:11.25
46 Spencer NELSON, USA    1:11.25
48 Andrew WAGNER, USA    1:11.38
19 Nathan ASOIAN, USA    1:11.38
50 Paul WARNER, USA    1:11.52
51 Travis KUSTER, USA    1:11.55
52 Christopher ACOSTA, USA    1:11.63
53 Hunter BLACK, USA    1:11.72
54 Sean HIGGINS, USA    1:11.79
55 Tommy FORD, USA    1:11.79
56 Maximilian HAMMER, USA    1:11.82
57 Hig ROBERTS, USA    1:11.85
58 Zachery RICKENBACH, USA    1:12.33
59 Robby KELLEY, USA/90    1:13.70
60 Clayton KRUEGER, USA    1:14.64
61 Sam GLAISHER, USA/92    1:15.44
62 Bryce BENNETT, USA    1:24.88