Congratulations are in order for all the winners at the Utah Winter
Games luge competition today. I didn't get all the details, but
here's the highlights:

Anthony Espinoza captured the Gold in the Youth Men's division.
Anthony took a bad spill earlier in the week (in the outrun no less)
and was sidelined with a small fracture in his arm for the rest of the
week. He showed up on race day and took the Gold despite the injury,
and told me he's going to take a couple weeks off now to heal.

Lea Vanderlinden took the Gold in Youth Women's division.

Congratulations to Carl Roepke for winning the Master's division, a
division I have a little more insight into for obvious reasons.

The races were held in VERY cold conditions. The temperature at
Junior's start was -19F for the first run and -16.5F for the second run.

Unfortunately, Brett West wasn't able to compete today. A spill in
the very fast Turn 14 on Friday left Brett with a very painful bruised
rib and he made the unfortunate but wise decision that he wasn't able
to safely pilot his sled any longer and he headed home.

Don Simkin improved his personal best time at UOP by over 2 seconds on
race day, posting very consistent runs of 46.963 and 46.988 in the
11-sled field.

I'm the happiest 8th place finisher you'll ever see. My runs weren't
perfect, but my 44.580 and 45.233 were respectable despite my "choice"
of an "exciting" line through Turn 12 on my second run according to
some observers. I did learn a lot about driving a sled, and there was
a point where I had P3 split times, so I was in the ballpark for a
little while.

The track is SO MUCH FUN to drive, and it's fast. While my best time
on the track came during training, I did post a personal best trap
speed of 101.0 kph / 62.8 mph on my first run.

At last count, our presence there this week helped 5 members of the
Wasatch Luge Club make the decision to travel to Lake Placid for the
Master National Championship next month. Hopefully more will join in.

As a final note, I'd like to thank Jon Owen, the USA Luge coach in
Park City. He did so much for all of us this week, and seemed
genuinely pleased to have visitors. He should be proud; his program
for the western youths is very well organized and full of energy.

See you all on Saturday at Lake Placid.

Murph