Utah's Pikus-Pace slides to 3rd in skeleton

PARK CITY — The final stop on the World Cup skeleton competition started a day earlier than scheduled when a makeup race originally scheduled for Cesana, Italy, was held because the Italian event had been canceled after receiving some 8 feet of snow.

About the only issue in Park City was a temperature hovering around 20 degrees, which really had little effect on the skeleton racers except to make the ice nice and hard.

On the women's side, Orem's Noelle Pikus-Pace took third place in the makeup competition.

"It feels good to be back," she said after the race.

She had taken a year off to have a baby and expressed her appreciation of having her family on hand to support her. She acknowledged a home track advantage for her and now feels ready to move forward on the circuit.

"I just have to find the time," she said.

Pikus-Pace said she had lost her focus earlier in the season but felt she got it back in this race.

"I was able to focus for 60 seconds," she said.

Canadian Mellisa Hollingsworth took home the gold in the race. She said she has been up and down this season but was elated to win first place. Marion Trott of Germany placed second.

Russian Alexander Tretiakov captured the men's gold medal and is firmly entrenched in first place in the overall standings with the final competition, the Park City World Cup, scheduled today beginning at 1 p.m.

Tretiakov has the reputation as being the fastest starter on the circuit, and it paid off Wednesday at the Utah Olympic Park.

Second place went to Eric Bernotas of the U.S., but overall he stands in 10th place and with only the one race remaining today has little chance at medaling in the overall standings. Frank Rommel of Germany took third place.

"I felt good at the start," Bernotas said. "I can't go back and say I made many mistakes."

Local hero Zach Lund encountered problems on his way to a 13th-place finish.

"I had an equipment issue," the former Judge Memorial student said. He said his team will try to correct a bent sled for today's race. He dropped to 12th place in the overall standings.

"This year has been full of problems," said Lund. "It has been a tough year."

Today they will do it all again for the official Park City skeleton World Cup, which is the last one of the season before the World Championships at Lake Placid. The men's competition begins at 9 a.m. and the women's at 1 p.m.

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