02-11-08 - PALMER WINS 2008 JEEP KING OF THE MOUNTAIN AT SQUAW VALLEY

Squaw Valley, California - It was an epic Jeep King of the Mountain snowboardcross competition Friday as U.S. Snowboarding's Shaun Palmer (South Lake Tahoe, CA) and Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, VT) outraced the competition to pull off a win.

Palmer, a snowboarding icon, made his SBX comeback on the first stop of the tour in Telluride by winning and pulled an unbelievably exciting repeat in Squaw Valley.

Palmer96_01.jpg

"He was riding super fast all day and he had fast starts," said U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley. "He led all of the heats the whole way so it was a pretty easy race for him."

Nate Holland (Truckee, CA), just coming of an exciting three-peat win of snowboardcross gold in the Winter X Games, pulled into second behind Palmer. Reigning U.S. SBX Champion Nick Baumgartner (Iron River, MI) finished third.

In her history of competing in the Jeep King of the Mountain series, Jacobellis has yet to be defeated on the snowboardcross course and Friday was no different as she notched out her fifth consecutive win.

"Here she was pretty far ahead of everybody. In this race she crushed it and no one really posed a threat to her," Foley said. "It's awesome that she has that kind of consistency. She wasn't backing off. She was racing hard the whole time and leading the way."

Jacobellis was followed by Joanie Anderson (South Lake Tahoe, CA) and Austrian Doris Guenther was third.

The snowboardcross team now heads to Tamarack, ID, for this weekend's Visa SBX Championship Series at the Chevy U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix.

Results:
Men
1. Shaun Palmer, South Lake Tahoe, CA
2. Nate Holland, Truckee, CA
3. Nick Baumgartner, Iron River, MI
4. Michael Layer, Germany
5. Drew Neilson, Canada

Women
1. Lindsey Jacobellis, Stratton Mountain, VT
2. Joanie Anderson, South Lake Tahoe, CA
3. Doris Guenther, Austria
4. Julie Lundholdt, Denmark
5. Susanne Moll, Austria