By USSA

SQUAW VALLEY — Olympian Tim Jitloff (Reno) sliced a wire-to-wire FIS giant slalom victory Wednesday to open five days of Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships competition in sun soaked Squaw Valley.

“It was actually just nice to get the feel on the hill. It’s a very nice hill and they could certainly run the World Cup on this if they wanted. That’s a tough hill, you have to bring a lot of intesity,” Jitloff said.

The race, a precursor to Friday’s U.S. Championship event, was on Red Dog with incredible snow conditions and a large crowd of fans, friends and families on hand to enjoy the annual alpine skiing end-of-the season celebration.

2014 NCAA giant slalom champion Mark Engel (Salt Lake City) of the University of Utah was second, followed by two-time Junior World Champion and current NorAm overall champ Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, VT.).