Mancuso 3rd Overall; 2nd in Super Combined

March 2, 2007
TARVISIO, ITALY – (USST News Bureau Release) – Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) climbed back into third place in the overall World Cup points Friday as she finished second in the final super combined event of the season with Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY) fifth after a scorching second run in soft conditions. Two other Americans were in the top 16.

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In the first World Cup held in Tarvisio, after fog and nighttime rain forced a one-hour delay in the downhill run, Austrian Nicole Hosp won with a time of 2:10.15 for the downhill and one run of slalom.

Overnight snow, rain and fog forced a one-hour delay in the downhill but it was sunny with temperatures around 40 F. for the slalom, which was postponed 90 minutes because of delays before and during the DH.

Mancuso second-fastest in DH, Stiegler No. 2 in SL
Mancuso, who won the last super combined – in mid-January in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, was second in the DH behind world champion Anja Paerson of Sweden and finished second overall at 2:10.47. Stiegler’s total time, combining her second-fastest time through the second run after placing 21st in the downhill, was 2:10.62 with Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN) 11th and Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) 16th.

World Cup slalom champion Marlies Schild of Austria finished third and kept her overall points lead (1,112) with Hosp into second place (1,089) and Mancuso third (1,039), moving up a spot from fourth at the start of the day.

“It’s not a really tough hill – not hard by any means, but it could be tough depending on the snow. We waited a while, and then waited some more before the downhill,” Mancuso said.

“The snow was slushy, but they did a good job with the chemicals. It wasn’t foggy for me (skiing 30th in DH) but we did have a hold for one of those crazy fog clouds that rolled through. The slalom was a really fun course. They set an open course and I skied some of my best slalom for those conditions.

“I could have skied faster, but I survived. I’ve still got tons of work to do, but I skied the bottom really well,” she said.

Coach pleased with slalom assault
Stiegler was stoked about once again having one of the top two fastest slalom runs. “I’m always second fastest. I need to be the fastest,” she said, “and then I could win a World Cup, or be on a podium.

“I started fifth in the slalom, so I was pretty lucky that I had a good course. But I made a mistake at the top, after the first combination where it goes over a pitch, from the flat to a pitch…and I wasn’t forward enough, but then I skied pretty good down to the bottom.”

“Can’t ever complain about a podium, and two in the top five, all four in the first 16,” said Women’s SL/GS Head Coach Chris Knight. “She’s really elevated her slalom in the last couple of weeks. And Resi had a mistake on the top and then skied conservatively for 10-15 gates after that, but then really got into it. Both of them had decent mistakes, too, on the top section of downhill and that obviously cost them, but they held in there.

“And it was great to see Kaylin and Stacey ski so well, too…really good effort from both of them. They took advantage of snow conditions when they went. Kaylin looked like she’s found some confidence again in her slalom,” Knight said. “She’s getting that back.”

“It was really, really wet snow which they salted. That held well for the snow condition. It was a nice little slalom hill at the bottom of the downhill.”

The women run a downhill Saturday and complete their first visit to Tarvisio with a super G Sunday before heading to Zwiesel, Germany.

For complete results: http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=21983&cal_suchsector=AL.