Column courtesy of TeamUSA.org
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Erin Warren, a member of the 1994 and 1998 United States Olympic Luge Team, returned to Mount Van Hoevenberg Sunday where she learned the sport and claimed the 2015 Masters Championship.
Warren, who finished sixth at the Nagano Olympic Winter Games, was the fastest woman down Lake Placid’s combination luge, bobsled and skeleton course. Racers in all divisions competed on the lower half-mile of the track.
Above, left to right: Erin Warren and Jennifer Elliot
“Today was a fabulous race day,” said Warren. “The track workers and race crew did a great job preparing a great track for us and really helping us enjoy what was a fabulous race day.”
The Carlisle, Mass. resident posted two heats that totaled 1 minute, 30. 823 seconds. Warren turned back Jennifer Elliot of North Salem, N.Y. Elliot’s two runs on a sunny, cold morning were timed in 1:33.761.
Jeff Stratton of Brooklyn, N.Y., a former member of the U.S. national team, won the 30-54 age group and in the process had the best time of the entire event. Stratton clocked two runs that totaled 1:29.986.
Above, left to right: Jesse Arndt, Jeff Stratton and Jim Murphy
“It was a good day…it was a lot of fun,” said Stratton. (The conditions) were beautiful.”
Jesse Arndt of Park City, Utah recorded the fastest final run in the bracket, trying to cut into a 0.17 of a second deficit after the first attempt. Arndt came close to wiping it all out, before finishing second in 1:30.006.
Jim Murphy of Brookline, N.H. was the bronze medalist in 1:30.774.
The 55 and over age division was captured by Jay Edmunds of Park City. The gold medalist’s aggregate time was 1:31.492. Paul Suplinskas of Grant, Mich. claimed the silver medal in 1:32.433, with Bill Kuntz of Colonia, N.J. taking the bronze medal in 1:33.123.
Above, left to right :Paul Suplinskas, Jay Edmunds and Bill Kuntz
The division included former USA Luge national team members Dick Genovese, Jim Mossey and 1972 Olympian and Oregonian Jack Elder. The 2015 Masters marked Genovese’s 46th consecutive season of racing, while Elder returned to the ice for the first time in 30 years. Genovese was the oldest racer in the field at 77 years of age.
Masters competitors are a mix of former athletes and adults who discovered the sport through club sliding, the primary outlet for recreational luge in the United States.
For more information on recreational sliding visit www.adirondacklugeclub.org (New York); www.msports.org/luge(Michigan); www.upluge.org/ (Upper Michigan) or www.wasatchluge.org (Utah).
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