Lake Placid, NY – Hometown favorite Billy Demong of the nearby hamlet of Vermontville, N.Y., celebrated a weekend homecoming with his ninth national title at the U.S. Nordic Combined Championships in Lake Placid on Sunday.

Third after the morning jump, Demong posted the third fastest 10k cross country roller ski time to hold off the hard charging Fletcher brothers, Taylor and Bryan of Steamboat Springs, Colo., who took silver and bronze, respectively, after Taylor Fletcher had the fastest roller ski time. Jump leader Todd Lodwick, also of Steamboat Springs, finished fifth in a very tight field despite a 16-second lead over Demong following the jump.

“No doubt, this was my best race of this summer,” said Demong. “I had some good training and this was a solid start to where I want to be right now.”

It was the ninth career U.S. title for the Olympic champion Demong.

“I was really just trying to ski my own race,” he explained. “The biggest threat today was either Todd (Lodwick), sprinting to the finish, or Taylor (Fletcher), who if he catches you, the chances are he’s just going to ski away from you on the bigger hills, especially lately, because he’s been training  so well. So I just wanted to ski an even split and stay just 10 to 15 seconds in front of him so he didn’t have the opportunity to break away from me. It seemed like that worked out. He pulled within 10 seconds of the last lap, but I had enough energy to hold that gap to the finish line.”