Just like old times: Veterans Hays, Bernotas, Pikus-Pace off quickly at US sliding trials

Hays, Bernotas, Pikus-Pace start fast at US trials

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — The Olympic seasons for veteran U.S. skeleton racers Eric Bernotas and Noelle Pikus-Pace are off to flying starts.

And 40-year-old bobsledder Todd Hays was more dominant than anyone.

Bernotas and Pikus-Pace were the leaders after Day 1 of the U.S. skeleton national team trials Wednesday. Bernotas edged Matt Antoine and Caleb Smith in the men’s two-run race, with Pikus-Pace beating Rebecca Sorensen and Annie O’Shea for the women’s lead.

The skeleton trials — four races in all, with each slider able to drop their worst day — resume Thursday, then pick up again next weekend in Park City, Utah.

Two-time World Cup champion Katie Uhlaender is not racing; she was given a medical waiver allowing her to skip the trials while recovering from a shattered left kneecap.

In the first day of two-man bobsled team trials, Hays’ quest for that elusive Olympic gold began with two strong runs. He teamed with Charles Berkeley to beat the sled of John Napier and Jamie Moriority by 1.38 seconds, a huge margin in bobsledding. Mike Kohn and Alex Sprague were third, nearly 2 seconds behind Hays’ times.

The women’s bobsledding race was significantly tighter: Erin Pac and Michelle Rzepka held the lead after one day, a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 55.38 seconds just 0.11 seconds better than Jamia Jackson and Elana Meyers. Bree Schaaf and Emily Azevedo were third, another quarter-second off the pace.

World champion Steve Holcomb is exempt from the bobsled trials, his place as one U.S. driver on the World Cup team already secure. So, too, is the women’s spot being held for Shauna Rohbock, who was in a non-competing forerunner sled Wednesday with Valerie Fleming.

Rohbock and Fleming teamed to win silver in the 2006 Turin Games, although it’s still unknown if they’ll be in the same sled for this World Cup and Olympic season.