From Lake Placid, USA
(January 26, 2025) – Hannah Neise and Susanne Kreher gave Germany a one-two North American Cup finish in what was a tune-up race for the coming 2025 IBSF World Championships a month’s time.
Germany held the top three spots after the first heat, with Neise leading Kreher and Jacqueline Pfeifer. Behind them, Jane Channell and Yuxi Li rounded out the top five from the heat.
Canada’s Channell moved to a podium position as she took the lead with only Kreher and Neise to go after Pfeifer pulled out of the second heat. Kreher slid to the lead by .29 ahead of Channell with what would become the third quickest run of the heat.
Neise, the reigning Olympic champion, outslid the field for the second time and took gold by nearly a half of a second over Kreher, with Channel in third.
The first and second place finishes come in Neise and Kreher’s second starts in the North American Cup, while Channell’s bronze was her first on the North American tour since a gold in Lake Placid during the 2012/2013 season. She has four starts since then.
Channell’s bronze came at the expense of Yuxi Li, who had the second quickest slide of the second heat and finished .02 behind Channell.
Kendall Wesenberg was the top American in fifth, up from sixth in the first heat, while Dan Zhao rounded out the top six for China.
Logan Wudi finished 14th for the United States, just ahead of Hannah Gaskins in 15th. Sha’Londa Terry was 17th, and Lisel Baker 18th for the Americans.
Grace Dafoe was 12th for Canada, with teammate Mackenzie Adams 23rd. Isabella Fassnidge was eighth for Great Britain.
Kendall Wesenberg had locked up the North American Cup title a race early and finished the season 214 points ahead of Columbia’s Laura Vargas in second. Vargas leapfrogged the US Virgin Islands’ Katie Tannenbaum, who finished the season in third. Hannah Gaskins and Sha’Londa Terry were fourth and fifth.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Hannah Neise | GER | 6 | 5.48 | 5.45 | 55.80 | 56.20 | 1:52.00 |
| 2 | Susanne Kreher | GER | 1 | 5.39 | 5.42 | 56.16 | 56.31 | 1:52.47 |
| 3 | Jane Channell | CAN | 4 | 5.31 | 5.29 | 56.35 | 56.41 | 1;52.76 |
| 4 | Yuxi Li | CHN | 7 | 5.43 | 5.41 | 56.49 | 56.29 | 1:52.78 |
| 5 | Kendall Wesenberg | USA | 17 | 5.80 | 5.70 | 56.54 | 56.38 | 1:52.92 |
| 6 | Dan Zhao | CHN | 2 | 5.44 | 5.39 | 56.68 | 56.34 | 1:53.02 |
| 7 | Siji Song | CHN | 18 | 5.57 | 5.55 | 56.99 | 56.70 | 1:53.69 |
| 8 | Isabella Fassnidge | GBR | 20 | 5.52 | 5.48 | 56.88 | 56.88 | 1:53.76 |
| 9 | Corinna Leipold | GER | 9 | 5.55 | 5.56 | 57.19 | 56.99 | 1:54.18 |
| 10 | Carolin Alexä | SUI | 23 | 5.52 | 5.57 | 57.15 | 57.44 | 1:54.59 |
| 11 | Yuxin Liang | CHN | 11 | 5.53 | 5.53 | 57.57 | 57.48 | 1:55.05 |
| 12 | Grace Dafoe | CAN | 28 | 5.77 | 5.81 | 57.38 | 57.98 | 1:55.36 |
| 13 | Yanqi Zhu | CHN | 15 | 5.48 | 5.46 | 57.79 | 57.60 | 1:55.39 |
| 14 | Logan Wudi | USA | 22 | 5.78 | 5.72 | 57.98 | 57.91 | 1:55.89 |
| 15 | Hannah Gaskins | USA | 13 | 5.54 | 5.67 | 57.92 | 58.12 | 1:56.04 |
| 16 | Laura Vargas | COL | 19 | 5.78 | 5.77 | 58.26 | 58.15 | 1:56.41 |
| 17 | Sha’Londa Terry | USA | 12 | 5.42 | 5.36 | 58.36 | 58.06 | 1:56.42 |
| 18 | Liesel Baker | USA | 21 | 5.84 | 5.83 | 58.75 | 57.79 | 1:56.54 |
| 19 | Katie Tannenbaum | ISV | 16 | 5.66 | 5.73 | 58.30 | 58.49 | 1:56.79 |
| 20 | Guanshuo Wang | CHN | 14 | 5.41 | 5.58 | 58.11 | 59.16 | 1:57.27 |
| 21 | Hannah Russwurm | FIN | 25 | 5.73 | 5.78 | 58.91 | 58.52 | 1:57.43 |
| 22 | Khanh Nguyen | VIE | 26 | 6.12 | 6.24 | 59.49 | 60.45 | 1:59.94 |
| 23 | Mackenzie Adams | CAN | 24 | 6.27 | 6.24 | 62.70 | 63.11 | 2:05.81 |
| DNS | Jacqueline Pfeifer | GER | 10 | 5.69 | 56.25 | |||
| DNS | Hallie Clarke | CAN | 8 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Kim Meylemans | BEL | 3 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Shannon Galea | MLT | 27 | DNS | ||||
| DNS | Nicole Silveira | BRA | 5 | DNS |