By USSA

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The U.S. Ski Team speed women continued to storm toward the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup podium Saturday as Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain) finished fifth and Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) seventh in the second of two Cortina downhills.

With less than two weeks to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, the pair has now finished inside the World Cup top 10 in three straight races with Cook also finishing fifth in Friday’s downhill.

Tina Maze of Slovenia, last season’s overall and downhill champion, took her first victory of the 2014 season.

Leanne Smith (N. Conway, N.H.) was 26th and World Cup rookie Jackie Wiles (Aurora, Ore.), who was 15th Friday, finished 29th.

The race was incredibly tight with the top 15 skiers separated by less than a second.

Women’s Olympic racing opens in Sochi on Feb. 10 with super combined followed by the downhill on Feb. 12.

The race, orginally slated for Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was moved to Cortina due to lack of snow in Germany.

Clear blue skies allowed the downhill to be staged from the top start. Friday’s race was run from the super G start.