To the delight of his many fans from Reno and Lake Tahoe, Tim Jitloff captured first place in the men’s giant slalom Wednesday at the first day of competition in the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships at Squaw Valley.
Jitloff grew up in Tahoe Donner, was a member of the Alpine Meadows Ski Team, and graduated from Truckee High School. His parents eventually relocated to Reno.
Jitloff is very familiar with the Squaw Valley ski resort terrain. He won the giant slalom in relatively easy fashion. On the first of two runs on Red Dog, he finished in 1 minute, 12.35 seconds, which was the fastest time.
Showing no signs of stress, Jitloff was even better on his second run with the low time of the day – 1:10.49. His combined time of 2:22.84 was nearly 3 seconds faster than second place Mark Engel (2:25.63). Ryan Cochran-Siegle was the bronze finisher (2:25.75).
“I just skied and enjoyed myself. I wasn’t thinking about winning or time,” said Jitloff, who also lives part-time in Germany and Reno. “For me, this is very relaxed. There’s not pressure here and I can just have fun. I grew up here. The first races I ever won as a kid were on Squaw’s Exhibition run. It’s a very nice hill and they could certainly run the World Cup on this if they wanted. That’s a tough hill; you have to bring a lot of intensity.”
Engel (Salt Lake City), the 2014 NCAA giant slalom champion from the University of Utah, had a solid two runs to take silver.
“You’re always fighting on this hill. It’s long and steep all the way to the finish,” Engel said. “It was really hard snow during the first run and the second run it was a little softer in some of the turns, but it never felt like it was going to give way.”
Action continues Thursday with the women’s U.S. Championships giant slalom, featuring reigning champion Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) and Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail).
