Hamlin places third at USA Championships

Remsen’s Erin Hamlin finished third at the USA National Luge Championships, finishing behind teammates Summer Britcher and Emily Sweeney at Mount Van Hoevenberg near Lake Placid.

LAKE PLACID >> Summer Britcher rallied Saturday to win her first USA Luge national championship, holding off Emily Sweeney at Mount Van Hoevenberg.

Britcher trailed Sweeney going into the fourth and final run of the event, then threw down her fastest time of the weekend to clinch the title. Britcher’s combined four-run time was 2 minutes, 57.960 seconds, about two-tenths of a second ahead of Sweeney’s time of 2:58.163.

Olympic bronze medalist and 2009 world champion Erin Hamlin, of Remsen, was third in 2:58.601.

Britcher had the lead after Friday’s first two runs, but trailed Sweeney by a tiny margin going into Saturday morning’s fourth and final heat. Britcher’s fourth-run time was 44.230 seconds, while Sweeney — still hampered by a wrist problem that’s limiting her at the start — completed her final run in 44.452 seconds.

Sweeney was the defending national champion, with Britcher second in 2015.

Tucker West easily won his second men’s national title, posting the top time in all four runs of that event. He finished in 3:27.394, beating runnerup Taylor Morris by 1.223 seconds. Jonny Gustafson was third, 1.242 seconds behind West.

Matthew Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman took the doubles national title, their two-run time of 1:29.081 good enough to beat Justin Krewson and Andrew Sherk (1:29.441) and Jake Hyrns and Anthony Espinoza (1:30.880). The format for nationals mirrored the Olympic program, with singles competitors having four runs over two days and doubles teams facing off in a oneday, two-run event.