LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Frank Masley and Tim Nardiello became the first 1988 Olympic luge team members for the United States after placing first and second Sunday in the final men's race of the NYNEX Olympic Team Trials at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.
In winning Sunday's race with a three-run total of 2 minutes, 9.41 seconds, Masley, 27, of Newark, Del., also claimed his ninth national championship title. The two-time Olympian has won six national singles titles and three doubles titles.
Nardiello, 27, a 1984 Olympian and resident of Lake Placid, was second with a time of 2:10.42. George Rhein, a 32-year-old from Spring Valley, N.Y., was third in 2:11.29.
'I'm relieved that it's over,' said Masley, who admitted to thinking past the Trials to next month's Olympics in Calgary. 'I never even thought about the Trials until a week before them. I'm ready to think about Calgary now.'
For the women, Bonny Warner and Cammy Myler will be named to the Olympic team on the basis of points earned in the Trials. Warner, a 1984 Olympian from Mt. Baldy, Calif., won the final race by nearly a second, posting a three-run total of 1:55.43. Erica Terwillegar, 24, of Lake Placid was second in 1:56.14,edging 19-year-old Cammy Myler, also of Lake Placid, who clocked 1:56.15.
'I had a hard time getting up for this run,' said the 25-year-old Warner, who also claimed her fourth national singles title. 'I had such a big lead.'
Two heats of the final race were held Saturday, while the final run took place Sunday afternoon. Both heats of men's doubles were also completed Sunday with the team of Joe Barile, 28, of Saddle River, N.J., and Steve Maher, 25, of Los Gatos, Calif,. winning the race in 1:18.23. Barile and Maher will be named to the Olympic team, with a discretionary selection named later.
Masley lead the overall Trial standings by a wide margin, winning two races and finishing second in one. He finished with a total of 280 points. Nardiello was second overall with 225 and Jon Owen third with 171.
Luge coaches are set to choose experienced luger Duncan Kennedy, 20, as the discretionary pick for the men's singles team. Kennedy was forced to drop out of the Trials in the middle of the second race when he sliced open his hand, cutting a tendon.
Warner finished the Trials with 280 points to Myler's 230. Terwillegar will be named to the Olympic team as a discretionary choice by coaches. She was third with 225 points.
The newly-named Olympic team will leave Tuesday for a weekend World Cup race in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
