Seventeen-year-old Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY) surprised herself Sunday as she skied out of the No. 61 start slot and earned the first World Cup points of her career, finishing a stunning 11th in a slalom. World Cup leader Janica Kostelic of Croatia won by more than a second in 1:42.97 with Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO) tied for seventh and Kristina Koznick (Burnsville, MN) 10th.

"I made a big mistake in the first run and I thought that was it, that I wouldn't get a second run," said Stiegler, who also was the Winstar Award winner from coming from beyond No. 45 start into the top 15. "But when I got to the bottom and I saw I was 20th, I was so psyched. Second run I had nothing to lose, so I just went out and skied my best."

Kostelic won in 1:42.97 with Tanja Poutiainen of Finland second in 1:44.20 and Claudia Riegler of New Zealand third (1:44.44). Schleper, sixth in the first run, caught some light rain at the end of the second run and finished in a tie for seventh with Swiss racer Sonja Nef at 1:44.73. Koznick's time was 1:44.77 and Stiegler, with the fourth-fastest second run, was next at 1:44.83 with Julia Mancuso (Olympic Valley, CA) missing a second run, finishing 31st and out of a second run by .04.

Kostelic was the winner in the combined calculation for Saturday's downhill and Sunday's slalom. Mancuso was fifth with Caroline Lalive (Steamboat Springs, CO) eighth and Kirsten Clark (Raymond, ME), third in the DH, 14th in combined.

"We were a little unfortunate in that Resi skiing so well bumped 'Jules' out of the top 30; otherwise, I think Jules might've been on the podium in combined," SL/GS Head Coach Mathias Berthold said of the combined formula, which calculates more than simply total time in two races.

"Resi skied so well and she deserved it. She was aggressive to start, made a couple of mistakes and then when she hit the flat she took off." — U.S. Coach Mathias Berthold, on Resi Stiegler

"But we'll take it, for sure. Resi skied so well and she deserved it. She was aggressive to start, made a couple of mistakes and then when she hit the flat she took off. And Sarah is really challenging for the podium, skiing so well right now. She just had a couple of mistakes on that second run. We're not far from the podium and I think we could do something in these next races [Dec. 28-29 in Semmering, Austria] – Sarah had a [GS] podium there two years ago and Koz won a slalom there, so it's been good for us."

Stiegler started the season in high gear, finishing sixth in European-dominated fields in the two Nature Valley Alpine Cup giant slaloms at Colorado's Loveland Basin Ski Area, opening the Chevy Truck Super Series; she turned 17 on the day of the second GS. She went to Are, Sweden, for the opening Europa Cup races and was fourth in the opening slalom. And she's been in Europe ever since.

Her World Cup introduction came last weekend when she skied in the first "knockout" slalom in Sestriere, Italy, but she failed to qualify for a second run. She made up for it Sunday.

"I was kinda struggling in training," she said. "I'd won a FIS race [sub-Europa Cup] in Ober-Gurgl, Austria, and I haven't been disappointed in what I've been doing, but I haven't been finishing. So, today I thought, 'Y'know, maybe 110 percent isn't the way to go.' And I pulled in just a bit. I was so psyched to see I'd get a second run.

"This is only my second World Cup and it's kinda weird. You feel like a star at the bottom when you finish and everybody's cheering." As tickled as she is with the performance, Stiegler was equally delighted to be heading home for Christmas. "I've been here for a month, so I'm ready to be home," she said.

— Courtesy, U.S. Ski Team