Bryna McCarty (Concord, VT) outlasted a nagging sore throat and made the breakthrough of her young career Friday, finishing fifth in a downhill won by German teenager Maria Riesch. Caroline Lalive (Steamboat Springs, CO) was 11th while three U.S. women crashed, including Kirsten Clark (Raymond, ME), who suffered her first major injuries-a broken wrist and knee injuries.

Riesch, 19, who had three World Cup podiums before this win, earned her first World Cup victory in 1:39.30 with Italian Isolde Kostner second at 1:39.76.

With her mother and some friends watching from the bottom of the race course, McCarty, 20, who won a Europa Cup super G last week (Innerkrems, Austria) and currently stands fourth in the points, came down in 1:40.26 for not only her first top-5 but her first top-20 and first top-10 result. She attended Green Mountain Valley School (VT)before graduating from Burke Mountain Academy, about 10 miles from her home; McCarty is in only her second season of occasional World Cup racing but between Clark's injury and her top-5 result, McCarty earned a look at more World Cup racing Friday.

"It hasn't sunk registered with me yet," McCarty said a couple of hours after the race. "It's still a little unreal."

Video session helped McCarty solved problems
After having some problems in the two training runs, she watched videos showed by the coaching staff Thursday night and made notes on how to correct her racing.

"I made a couple of mistakes in the training runs and I cleaned up what I had to," she said, adding that she's still dealing with a sore throat that hit earlier this week. "In the videos, I saw I kinda got tiwsted on the first [Thursday], so that was probably whereI lost most of my time. It was minor, little things like that-tucking and other stuff-on the way down."

She added, "I'm getting more comfortable with racing on the World Cup. I don't get as nervous any more. I was very relaxed today. I tried to get myself in the same mindset as when I won in Innerkrems. I was super relaxed-went down the course the best I could."

"Bryna did an outstanding job," Head DH/SG Coach Alex Hoedlmoser said. "She was super-fast on the top and carried that speed through the technical sections. It was outstanding skiing."

Clark crashed into the safety netting when she went too far off a jump on the upper part of the course. She broke her right wrist and suffered ligament damage in both knees, the U.S. Ski Team said. She was undergoing wrist surgery in a Salzburg Hospital and was expected to be sidelined indefinitely.

Clark is third top skier injured in Haus
Lalive was timed in 1:40.93 while Alison Powers (Winter Park, CO) finished 27th, Jonna Mendes (Heavenly, CA) 30th and, in her World Cup debut, Stacey Cook (Truckee, CA) 41st.

Clark was the final U.S. skier to go out. Lindsey Kildow (Vail, CO) crashed off the same jump that caught Clark near the first timing interval on the Krummholz course. Libby Ludlow (Bellevue, WA) went down in the midsection. Clark crashed and was caught in the safety netting, triggering a course delay of about 10 minutes.

"Lindsey and Clarky went down on the upper portion, coming off a jump before a compression. Libby crashed farther down the course," Hoedlmoser said. "Clarky carried more distance off the jump, almost into the compression, and went into the nets."

Earlier in the week, German Regina Haeusl and Ingrid Rumpfhuber of Austria crashed in the same area and will miss the rest of the season.

WOMEN'S ALPINE WORLD CUP
Women's DH-1 (from Lech, AUT)

1. Maria Riesch, Germany, 1:39.30
2. Isolde Kostner, Italy, 1:39.76
3. Renate Goetschl, Austria, 1:39.78
4. Hilde Gerg, Germany, 1:40.06
5. Bryna McCarty, Concord, Vt., 1:40.26

11. Caroline Lalive, Steamboat Springs, Colo., 1:40.93
27. Alison Powers, Winter Park, Colo., 1:41.87
30. Jonna Mendes, Heavenly, Calif., 1:42.16
41. Stacey Cook, Truckee, Calif., 1:43.66

DNF: Lindsey Kildow, Vail, Colo.; Libby Ludlow, Bellevue, Wash.; Kirsten Clark, Raymond, Maine

— Courtesy of US Ski Team