Mark Fawcett wins another one at Mam- moth making him the best Alpine racer in North America this year.

Cross-M teammates Mark Fawcett and Adam Hostetter traded the lead twice in the first run of the final at the APSS Mammoth Mountain Slalom March 1, 1996. In fact, Hoss defeated Fawcett in their first run by .24 seconds. On the second run, however, Hoss wasn't so lucky. He launched out of the start, hooked the second gate, and slammed handing the win to Fawcett.

"I wasn't even really worried about the ruts at the top of the course," Hostetter said at the finish line. "I was really focused on the middle of the course and then next thing I new it was over."

Though he was happy with the win, Fawcett felt bad for Hostetter. "It's not a great way to go out after doing so well all day," he said. "But those ruts were getting pretty scary."

Hoss wasn't the only rut casualty. In the race for third and fourth place in the men's competition Mammoth local Brett Leask and Jasey Anderson were getting bucked all over. Brett blew out of the top of the course and Jasey kept charging to the finish only the get caught in a rut four gates from the finish. What happened next resulted in 15 minutes of video replay. According to Anderson he clipped a run and flew around the gate, however, the gatekeepers said he went through it. After several viewings of the ESPN video tape, Technical Delegate Ted Martin decided that Anderson would be DQ'd.

In the women's finals the ruts decided the contest. In both of the final runs Canada's Ivana Trudel got caught in the ruts and fell. Rosie Fletcher simply stood up to the finish and rode away with the win. "This isn't the way I usually like to win races," Fletcher said. "But I'll take the money, sure."

   APSS Mammoth SL
        Mammoth Mountain, CA
        March 1, 1996
        WOMEN
        1 FLETCHER Rosey USA
        2 TRUDEL Ivana CAN
        3 LUNDSTROM Amy USA
        4 KOSGLOW Lisa USA
        5 HUGHES Emma AUS
        6 HENGGE Madeleine USA
        7 LAJOIE Manon CAN
        8 HICKS Jennifer USA
        9 ROSE Amy USA
        10 LAMBERT Melissa USA
        11 TIRPAK Melissa USA
        12 HOLLMANN Birgit GER
        13 MCGUINNESS Alexis USA
        MEN
        1 FAWCETT Mark CAN
        2 HOSTETTER Adam USA
        3 LEASK Brett AUS
        4 ANDERSON Jasey Jay CAN
        5 FELLAY Marc SUI
        6 MASSARO Chris USA
        7 ONLEY Jayson AUS
        8 DOWD Dave USA
        9 KNAACK Frank USA
        10 ARCHIBALD Jeff USA
        11 ZIKAS Tom USA
        12 SIMMS Nate USA
        13 PROULX Sylvain CAN
        14 MITCHELL Matt USA
        15 BROWN Ryan USA
        16 MATTINGLEY Darren
        17 BOILEAU Pierre CAN
        18 DRINKER Matthew USA
        19 NISCHAN Derek CAN
        20 PRICE Ian USA
        21 268 5300044 HAYES Steve USA
        22 REID Johnathon CAN
        23 BALDWIN Eric USA
        24 ZEHNER Gernot AUT
        25 FLORES Jeff USA
        26 RUBINCAM Peter Cook USA