St. Johann, Austria – – The USA’s John Teller made history scoring the first World Cup win for an American in Thursday’s skicross race in St. Johann.nThursday result was a career best for the American Skicross Association skier as he landed on the podium for the second straight event. It was also the career first World Cup skicross podium result for Canada’s Nick Zoricic, of Toronto, Ontario, who finished second.

Teller, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., started his podium trend in Innichen, Italy last month with third before taking top honors in St. Johann. Teller’s win will go down in the history books for the USA as the first ever American skicross World Cup victory.

“He absolutely killed it! I had a good feeling yesterday when he qualified in fifth,” said American Skicross Association’s and five-time Olympian Casey Puckett. “I know that course. If you have a good start position you have a good chance.”

Teller qualified in fifth position for the final rounds. Once in the finals, he didn’t look back sweeping the three heats including his quarterfinal and semifinal on the way to the final four man race. Thomas Zangerl of Austria finished behind Zoricic in third, and Austria’s Andreas Matt came in fourth.

“The course is St. Johann is the most technical course on the World Cup and the only course that injects the snow with water,” said Puckett, who was on the USA’s first Olympic skicross team last year.

Injecting water into the course makes it much harder, in turn increasing the difficultly level and requiring better skiing abilities. Also, with injection, the landings become much firmer and less forgiving furthering the difficulty.

The other U.S. skiers who competed in St. Johann were Patrick Duran (Fayston, Vt.) and Jean Christophe Rudigoz (Ketchum, Idaho). No U.S. skiers competed in the women’s competition, which was won by Germany’s Heidi Zacher. Canada’s Kelsey Serwa finished fifth, followed by Danielle Poleschuk in 13th, Marielle Thompson in 18th and Julia Murray in 25th.

The next World Cup skicross is scheduled for Jan. 12 in Alpe d’Huez, France.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Freestyle World Cup
ST. Johann, Austria – Jan. 7, 2011
Skicross

Men
1. John Teller, Mammoth, CA
2. Nick Zoricic, Toronto, ON, Canada
3. Thomas Zangerl, Austria

Women
1. Heidi Zacher, Germany
2. Hedda Berntsen, Norway
3. Anna Woerner, Germany