LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) -- Ashley Walden and Chris Mazdzer won the opening races Wednesday in USA Luge's national team trials for the World Cup season.
Walden finished two runs in 1 minutes, 30.397 seconds to edge Megan Sweeney by 0.084 seconds for the Day 1 women's win, with Courtney Zablocki finishing third, another 0.129 seconds back. In the men's race, Mazdzer's combined time of 1:47.244 was 0.394 seconds better than Trent Matheson and 0.418 better than Joe Mortensen.
Several sliders are exempt from the trials, based on past performances. Those include reigning women's world champion Erin Hamlin, Julia Clukey, Bengt Walden and Tony Benshoof.
Also, USA Luge's three doubles teams for the season -- Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin, Christian Niccum and Dan Joye, and Matt Mortensen and Preston Griffall -- have already been selected.
