From Lake Placid, USA
(Jan. 11, 2018) American Austin Florian took gold in the first of two North American Cup men’s skeleton events in Lake Placid, taking the overall NAC point lead in the process.
In the first heat, Florian finished .81 ahead of teammate Andrew Blaser and .87 ahead of Joseph Luke Cecchini, giving him plenty of padding in the second run.
On that second run, Florian continued to shine, finishing with a 1.24 second advantage over Cecchini, who finished with a silver medal. Blaser finished third.
Florian’s win gives him a 51 point advantage over Blaser going into the NAC finale on January 12. Katsuyuki Miyajima, who was tied with Florian coming into the day, did not compete.
Canada’s Mark Lynch finished fourth, ahead of Israel’s AJ Edelman and Australia’s Nick Timmings, who round out the top six.
Chris Strup and Daniel Barefoot finished 11th and 12th to round out the American effort on home soil, while Canada’s Kyle Donsberger finished 16th.
Puerto Rico’s Todd Rodriguez Pfalzgraf made his NAC debut with an 18th place finish.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Austin Florian | USA | 4.83 | 4.90 | 55.72 | 56.84 | 1:52.56 |
| 2 | Joseph Luke Cecchini | ITA | 5.02 | 5.01 | 56.59 | 57.21 | 1:53.80 |
| 3 | Andrew Blaser | USA | 5.00 | 5.02 | 56.53 | 57.69 | 1:54.22 |
| 4 | Mark Lynch | CAN | 5.04 | 5.06 | 56.90 | 57.78 | 1:54.68 |
| 5 | Adam Edelman | ISR | 5.17 | 5.24 | 56.86 | 57.83 | 1:54.69 |
| 6 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 4.94 | 4.94 | 56.69 | 58.26 | 1:54.95 |
| 7 | Nicholas Rettenmyer | ITA | 5.24 | 5.23 | 56.79 | 58.39 | 1:55.18 |
| 8 | Anthony Watson | JAM | 5.03 | 4.99 | 57.16 | 58.16 | 1:55.32 |
| 9 | Brendan Doyle | IRL | 4.94 | 4.95 | 57.10 | 58.32 | 1:55.42 |
| 10 | Joel Seligstein | ISR | 5.34 | 5.31 | 57.33 | 58.26 | 1:55.59 |
| 11 | Chris Strup | USA | 4.86 | 4.84 | 57.79 | 57.86 | 1:55.65 |
| 12 | Daniel Barefoot | USA | 5.07 | 5.11 | 57.67 | 58.24 | 1:55.91 |
| 13 | Dean Timmings | AUS | 5.12 | 5.01 | 57.65 | 58.74 | 1:56.39 |
| 14 | Jeff Bauer | LUX | 5.37 | 5.42 | 58.20 | 59.08 | 1:57.28 |
| 15 | Akwasi Frimpong | GHA | 5.06 | 5.00 | 58.37 | 59.30 | 1:57.67 |
| 16 | Kyle Donsberger | CAN | 5.28 | 5.30 | 59.50 | 59.57 | 1:59.07 |
| 17 | Joe Della Santina | NZL | 5.87 | 5.92 | 60:65 | 60.57 | 2:01.22 |
| 18 | Todd Rodriguez Pfalzgraf | PUR | 8.26 | 7.07 | 65.35 | 63.33 | 2:08.68 |
