Mancuso ends reign of Raymond’s Clark

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – All it took was a glance at the schedule to give Julia Mancuso that winning edge.

Mancuso ended Kirsten Clark’s four-year domination of the women’s downhill at the U.S. Alpine Championships, racing to a convincing victory Wednesday over Lindsey Kildow and Jonna Mendes in 1 minute, 38.07 seconds.

Steven Nyman, who barely made the Alpine B team this year, stunned the men’s field. He actually finished a race, winning in 1:34.81 as three of the favorites faded.

Travel-weary Bode Miller finished fourth, Jakub Fiala was seventh, and Marco Sullivan veered off the Whiteface Mountain course and failed to finish.

Mancuso, who beat everybody in training on Tuesday by more than two seconds, nearly duplicated that feat in the race. Kildow was 0.56 seconds behind and Mendes was 1.98 seconds back.

Weary from the grueling World Cup tour, the 19-year-old Mancuso was all smiles as she contemplated lying on a beach somewhere soon.

“When the last month comes along, I don’t have the whole season in front of me,” said Mancuso, who was 17th in the combined at the 2002 Winter Olympics.