Contact: Amanda Bird, USABS Marketing & Communications Director, (518) 354-2250, amanda.bird@usabs.com
Kristen Gowdy, USABS Media and Marketing Assistant, (719) 722-0522, kristen.gowdy@usabs.com
Uhlaender and West win first USA Skeleton National Team Trials races
CALGARY, Canada (Oct. 7, 2017)- Katie Uhlaender (Breckenridge, Colo.) and Greg West (Springfield, Mo.) won tonight’s first of four USA Skeleton National Team Trials races to make a strong bid for a spot on the World Cup squad.
“I’m really excited about the results, you can see how the hard work over the summer has paid off for these athletes,” said USA Skeleton Head Coach Tuffy Latour. “Our veterans haven’t been to Calgary in years since it hasn’t been a World Cup stop, so it’s been a battle between our rookies, development athletes and veterans. I’m excited to see what our athletes bring to the table tomorrow night.”
Athletes are racing in a series of four competitions, two in Calgary and two in Lake Placid, N.Y., before the USA Skeleton National Team is named. Points from all four races will be tallied, and the top three ranked women’s and men’s athletes will earn a spot on the World Cup team.
Three-time Olympian Uhlaender outpaced her closest competition by 0.26 seconds to win the first of four team trials races. The 14-year veteran threw down a first run of 57.33 seconds to take the lead over Kendall Wesenberg (Modesto, Calif.), who clocked 57.63. Wesenberg responded in run two with the fastest time of the heat, 57.87, but Uhlaender was still out of reach after she clocked a final run of 57.91.
Uhlaender is a former World Cup champion and she is the only woman in the sport to win gold, silver and bronze medals in World Championships. She’s making a comeback this season after an infection kept her off the ice for the majority of last year. Uhlaender is back on track with her first win of the season with a combined time of 1:55.24, though she enters the season with a heavy heart. Her best friend, bobsled legend Steven Holcomb, passed away at the age of 37 on May 6, and Uhlaender said she’s been overwhelmed by her grief.
“This summer has been really hard,” Uhlaender said. “Any question I’ve ever had I’ve asked Holcomb, and it all hit me last night that he’s not here. I’ve been on autopilot all summer. I did the work, checked the boxes, but I was easily distracted. This is the first Olympic season I’ve started where I feel like I’m not ready. I literally came to the line tonight and thought, ‘I don’t know how this will go, I’m just going to do my best and hope that’s enough.’ I have some amazing support from my friends and teammates, but it’s still not easy.”
Wesenberg claimed her first World Cup medal last season, a silver, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and has been steadily climbing international rank since becoming the first American woman to win a European Cup title in 2015, 10 years after an American man won the overall crown. Wesenberg was Uhlaender’s closest competition today with a two-run total of 1:55.50. This week was Wesenberg’s first time ever sliding in Calgary.
“I feel really good,” Wesenberg said. “When I learned that my home track in Park City, Utah wasn’t going to be a part of trials and was replaced with one I’ve never been to, it was something to think about for the last six months. I worked with sports psychologist Alex Cohen on ways to approach this week and came into this prepared mentally.”
“Three more to go, and tomorrow is a new day,” Wesenberg added. “I need to regroup tonight for tomorrow and then we still have two more races in Lake Placid before I’ve earned a spot.”
Savannah Graybill (Denver, Pa.) threaded together two strong runs of 57.88 and 58.10 seconds to challenge for a World Cup position with a cumulative time of 1:55.98 for third place. Graybill primarily competed on the Intercontinental Cup Circuit (ICC), but raced in several World Cups and was also pulled up to the 2017 World Championship team. Meg Henry (Roxbury, Conn.), Veronica Day (Vienna, Va.) and Gracie Clapp-Taylor (Saint Johns, Fla.) rounded out the top six women.
West, who beat out two-time Olympian John Daly (Smithtown, N.Y.), strung together the fastest time of each heat with 55.93 and 56.26-second downtimes to earn the victory. West made the national team last year for the first time since the 2014-2015 season, but suffered a hamstring injury that derailed the end of his season after two top-10 ICC finishes in Lake Placid.
“I feel really good, and to be honest, my push is what got me into it and put me in the race,” West said. “I had knee surgery in the spring and lost about 30 pounds this summer but kept my strength up. Without Dr. Eugene Byrne and my strength coach Keith Scruggs, I wouldn’t be here, let alone be competitive. Then my grandparents drove all the way up here from Alabama, so having them here was awesome. It was great to have that support.”
Daly, meanwhile, edged Kyle Brown (Concord, N.H.) by 0.04 seconds to finish with a combined downtime of 1:52.72 and in second place in his first team trials race since before the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Daly announced his retirement after Sochi, but decided to return to the sport after a two-year hiatus. Last season he raced on every circuit, working his way up to the World Cup team by February. Brown, who finished today’s competition with a 1:52.88 combined downtime, is a three-time national team member and primarily competed on the ICC last season.
Olympic bronze medalist Matt Antoine (Prairie du Chien, Wis.) took fourth, while 2016-2017 national team members Mike Rogals (Orwell, Vt.) and Nathan Crumpton (Park City, Utah) finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Team Trials will resume with the second skeleton race tomorrow night in Calgary at 5:45 p.m. local time before heading back to Lake Placid to conclude trials on Oct. 17 and 18. USABS will provide live updates on its Twitter and Facebook pages.
For media inquiries, please contact Amanda Bird, USABS Marketing & Communications Director, at amanda.bird@usabs.com, or at (518) 354-2250.
Women
1. Katie Uhlaender 1:55.24 (57.33, 57.91);
2. Kendall Wesenberg 1:55.50 (57.63, 57.87);
3. Savannah Graybill 1:55.98 (57.88, 58.10);
4. Meg Henry 1:56.33 (58.16, 58.17);
5. Veronica Day 1:56.37 (58.35, 58.02);
6. Gracie Clapp-Taylor 1:56.46 (58.23, 58.23);
7. Samantha Culiver 1:56.53 (58.15, 58.38);
8. Annie O’Shea 1:56.57 (57.92, 58.65);
9. Kellie Delka 1:57.42 (58.76, 58.66);
10. Kelly Curtis 1:57.49 (58.82, 58.67);
11. Leslie Stratton 1:57.98 (58.42, 59.56);
12. Megan Dovell 1:58.40 (59.20, 59.20);
13. Morgan Tracey 1:58.42 (59.20, 59.22);
14. Michelle Toukan 2:01.06 (1:00.69, 1:00.37);
15. Kristen Hurley 2:02.06 (1:01.01, 1:01.05);
16. Mystique Ro 2:05.90 (1:04.81, 1:01.09);
Men
1. Greg West 1:52.19 (55.93, 56.26);
2. John Daly 1:52.72 (56.13, 56.60);
3. Kyle Brown 1:52.88 (56.22, 56.66);
4. Matt Antoine 1:53.11 (56.33, 56.78);
5. Mike Rogals 1:53.21 (56.35, 56.86);
6. Nathan Crumpton 1:53.41 (56.40, 57.01);
7. Stephen Garbett 1:53.50 (56.66, 56.84);
8. Austin McCrary 1:53.70 (56.94, 56.76);
9. Austin Florian 1:53.73 (56.71, 57.02);
10. Alex Ivanov 1:53.89 (56.50, 57.29);
11. Kyle Tress 1:53.92 (56.91, 57.01);
12. Andrew Blaser 1:54.17 (56.88, 57.29);
13. Mike Brandt 1:54.26 (57.03, 57.23);
14. Jake Miter 1:54.46 (57.14, 57.32);
15. Allen Blackwell 1:55.21 (57.49, 57.72);
16. Max Delance 1:56.79 (58.35, 58.44);
17. Dakarai Kongela 1:57.77 (58.47, 59.30);
18. Jimmy Nguyen 1:58.08 (58.48, 59.60);
About USA Bobsled & Skeleton
USA Bobsled & Skeleton (USABS), based in Lake Placid, N.Y., is the national governing body for the sports of bobsled and skeleton in the United States. USABS would like to thank its sponsors, suppliers and contributors for their support: BMW of North America, Under Armour, Kampgrounds of America, Thorne, Boomerang Carnets, Hudl Technique, Tesa Tape, PVS International, Ferris Mfg. Corp, Stress Engineering, Machintek, deBotech and Carpenter. For more information, please visit the USBSF website at www.usabs.com.
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