Merryweather, Cochran-Siegle win national downhill races

Published Mar. 20, 2019 1:43 p.m. ET

CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine (AP) — Alice Merryweather and Ryan Cochran-Siegle captured downhill titles at the U.S. Alpine championships.

The 22-year-old Merryweather finished the course at Sugarloaf Mountain in a time of 1 minute, 10.61 seconds on Tuesday to edge Keely Cashman by 0.31 seconds. AJ Hurt was third.

In the men's race, Cochran-Siegle turned in a time of 1:07.53 to hold off Thomas Biesemeyer by 0.13 seconds. Jared Goldberg took third.

Merryweather had a solid season as she uncovered another level of confidence thanks to advice from the now-retired Lindsey Vonn. The all-time winningest female World Cup racer told Merryweather to forget about pressure and just ski fast. Merryweather was eighth during a World Cup downhill in Germany two months ago.

Cochran-Siegle finished 12th in the downhill at the world championships in Sweden last month.