Cook tops Vonn in women’s downhill

CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Stacey Cook won her second title in two days by edging out Lindsey Vonn in the women’s downhill, while T.J. Lanning beat Andrew Weibrecht for the men’s crown at the U.S. Alpine Championships on Monday.

Organizers of the event at Sugarloaf ski area made up for time lost to weather by conducting four downhill runs – two mandatory training runs and two national championship races.

Cook, a teammate of World Cup overall champion Vonn, beat her for the second day in a row, having also claimed the super-G title Sunday with a time of 1 minute, 11.69 seconds.

“To beat Lindsey two days in a row is a pretty special feat,” Cook said. “I don’t think that happens very often for anybody in the world.”

Vonn made a small error on the upper reaches of the course. She closed to finish within 0.20 seconds of Cook, but was unable to overtake her.

Despite handling international downhill competition all season long, she continues to be shut out of a national title in her favored discipline.

She left the finish area quickly, saying, “I have nothing to say. I’m embarrassed.”

Third place went to Chelsea Marshall, matching her performance in the downhill at last season’s U.S. Championships in Alaska.

Lanning’s win in 69.04 seconds was his first national championship. Injuries have forced him to miss all or parts of the past four ski seasons.

Lanning said he had “a solid clean run,” and said he was enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the national championships. “Of course,” he added, “it’s easier to have fun when you win.”

Of his runner-up finish, Weibrecht said, “Yeah, I’m satisfied, but I sure wish I could have found a few more tenths. But, I podiumed at nationals. That’s obviously cool.”

Christopher Beckmann was third.

Combined titles were also awarded based on the total time from the downhill and the slaloms held Saturday.

Vonn won the women’s combined for her fifth career title, while Jimmy Cochran won the men’s combined, a title his father Bob collected 37 years ago.

Scheduling for the championships has been changing daily since the first of the scheduled events was canceled five days ago. Holding both the training runs and the downhill races on Monday was the last chance organizers had to get in all of the races needed to award all 10 championship categories.