WINTER PARK — Sarah Schleper made one mistake in her first run of giant slalom Friday at the U.S. Alpine Championships. She made Julia Mancuso mad.
Schleper laid down the fastest run in the morning session, taking a sizable 1.52-second lead over Mancuso, the team’s most accomplished GS racer. Mancuso came roaring back in the afternoon run to post her third straight U.S. title in GS and add to her team record for national titles (now 12). Schleper, a product of Ski Club Vail, finished 0.61 behind in second place.
“Sarah really laid it down, first run,” Mancuso said. “Maybe she shouldn’t have gone so fast, so I wouldn’t get so mad and want to ski fast.”
Mancuso, the 2006 Olympic champion in GS, broke Andrea Mead Lawrence’s record for U.S. titles (10) last year, a record that stood for 55 years.
The team’s top racers sometimes have trouble getting motivated to race at nationals after the finish of a grueling World Cup season — Mancuso had 30 World Cup starts and five world championships races — but Mancuso had a couple of advantages this time.
“Some years it’s tiring,” said Mancuso, who won the final World Cup downhill of the season March 16 in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. “This year we had a couple weeks off, and my mom lives in Denver, so I was motivated in that sense to come to nationals. It’s always nice to see my mom and stay with her, and also go to Boulder and hang out with the Spyder crew, put some input into the next year’s clothing line.”
Vail native Mikaela Shiffrin, perhaps the team’s brightest young prospect for the future, finished 10th. Shiffrin made her World Cup debut last month, two days before turning 16.
“I’m happy,” Shiffrin said. “It would have been nice to have finished higher, but obviously there were other girls who skied better, and I know they skied better, because I saw a lot of them ski better. Congrats to them.”
Schleper is twice Shiffrin’s age and has a 3-year-old son, but she already is looking forward to another World Cup season.
“I’m still having fun. I love my teammates,” Schleper said. “Resi (Stiegler) and I are best friends, and we’re really going to push each other this summer. Then of course we have Mikaela coming up. It’s just going to be a great group of kids.”
Schleper was 16 when she made her World Cup debut in 1995. Shiffrin has been compared with Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn, both Olympic champions, when they were her age.
“She’s got more going for her than Lindsey, Julia, myself, anybody did at her age,” Schleper said. “She already has a junior worlds medal, she’s won NorAms, her points (FIS ranking) are ridiculous for her age. I think it’s cool. I’m just hoping she stays healthy. She works really hard. She’s very mature too. I think she’s going to fit into our team really well.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
