PARK CITY — When the first round of official selection races for the U.S. skeleton 2000-01 teams ended Sunday night at the Utah Winter Sports Park, Utahns were prominent on both men's and women's teams.
Altogether, 27 men and 14 women participated in the three-day event that concluded with the naming of the national team, said Julie Urbansky, spokeswoman for the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation.
Three selection races were held on the Utah Olympic Park Bobsled, Luge and Skeleton Track, where the 2002 Winter Games will take place. A second round, to select members of the World Cup team, will be held in Calgary, Canada, next month.
In Calgary, the national team — 10 men and eight women who were announced Sunday — will be divided into World Cup and America's Cup teams. Part of that selection has already begun.
Members of the men's skeleton national team are Chris Soule, Trumbull, Conn., who won two of three races; Lincoln DeWitt, Park City, the winner of the the North American championships; Jim Shea Jr., Lake Placid, N.Y.; Brady Canfield, Red Lodge, Mont; Zach Lund, Salt Lake City; Terry Holland, Pittsfield, Mass.; Trevor Christie, Park City; Kevin Ellis, Dallas; Harry Jackson, Lancaster, Pa., and Brian McDonald, Kingston, N.Y.
The women's national team consists of Lee Ann Parsley, Granville, Ohio, who won the last two days of the competition; Tricia Stumpf, a Park City resident for the past 10 years and winner of the 2002 summer push championship; Janet Ivers, Park City; Babs Isak, Park City; Colleen Rush, Park City; Tristan Gale, Salt Lake City; Natasha Ellison, Albuquerque; and Juleigh Walker, Westport, N.Y.
Named to the America's Cup team were Ralph Mirabelli, Rome, N.Y.; Chad Omweg, Park City; Orvie Garrett, Washington, Mass.; Ryan Geertsen, Salt Lake City; Fallon Vaughn, Dallas; Katie Koczynski, Nyack, N.Y.; and Marta Schultz, Berwyn, Pa.
DeWitt noted that during the summer he trained to improve his start time at a practice facility.
"You spend all summer working on essentially the first five seconds of the race," he said.
The work paid off.
DeWitt, whose score was second overall for the men's competition, set the track record for fastest push time. In fact, in only one of his six starts did he fail to break the previous year's track record for start time.
This was the beginning of the selection process for the 2002 Winter Games. The international governing body for skeleton and bobsled includes among its minimum Olympic requirements that competitors race in at least five races in the Olympic and the previous seasons, with at least one race in each of those seasons.
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