Blake Junior Michael Ankeny to Ski at U.S. Nationals
|
 Blake junior Michael Ankeny has been selected to represent the United States at the 2008 U.S. Alpine National Championships to be held March 21-26, 2008, at the Sugarloaf resort in Sugarloaf/USA, Maine. U.S Nationals is the stage where the best in the world come together on U.S. soil to compete for the highest honors in U.S. ski racing. Ankeny earned that honor in part by taking first place overall at the J2 National Alpine Ski Racing Championships held last week in Aspen, Colo. Ankeny competed against the top 66 USSA racers, aged 16 and 17, from all around the country in four events: slalom, giant slalom and super G and downhill. Ankeny started the week strongly by finishing second in the downhill (clocking the highest speed of the day - 71.49 mph), followed by a tie for third in the super G. The following day Ankeny took second place in the GS after he laid down the fastest first run only to get edged out by friend and arch rival Hunter Schleper from Vail, Colo., in the second run. Ankeny's strongest event, the slalom, was run on the last day of the event under sunny skies and seasonably cool temperatures. Ankeny knew the competition was tough so he went all out on the first run, which left him with a commanding lead of 2.5 seconds. Nervous for the second run, not wanting to squander such a lead, Ankeny skied solidly enough to win the second run by a comfortable margin and clinch the slalom title, besting Squaw Valley, California's Nick Daniels. Teammate and friend Marc Massie '09 took fourth. Ankeny's consistent podium performances all week earned him first place in the overall standings.
Ankeny is seventeen years old and is ranked number 1 in slalom in the world for his age. He is a member of the Buck Hill Alpine Ski Racing Club in Burnsville, Minn., and is coached by Ski Hall of Famer Erich Sailer, former Slovenian World Cup star Uros Pavlovcic, and two-time U.S. Olympian and former World Cup racer Tasha Nelson McCrank.
|
|
