By Kalle Oakes,Staff Writer

CARRABASSETT VALLEY – It has only taken a few days back where it all started to convince Kirsten Clark that she isn’t nearly finished.

Less than a month from her 29th birthday and running on fumes at the end of her toughest World Cup skiing season, Clark kick-started the process of resuscitating her career Saturday by winning a treacherous downhill event on her home course at the U.S. Alpine Championships.

Clark, who grew up in Raymond and hit the books and slopes at Carrabassett Valley Academy, attacked the Narrow Gauge trail at Sugarloaf/USA with the abandon of a teenager and the poise of a woman who’s won ski races for half her life.

Her time of 1 minute, 19.65 seconds dominated a ragged encounter that eight of 53 starters failed to finish in soupy course conditions.

“I haven’t skied here since the last time Sugarloaf hosted the U.S. Nationals (in 1997),” Clark said. “But I definitely have some advantage. I know when to go left and when to go right. That hasn’t changed.”

In addition to rabid fan support, the sentimental favorite benefited from a confidence and a range of motion in her world-weary knees that have been lacking since September.

That’s when Clark went into the hospital for a routine operation to clean out a surgically repaired knee. She contracted a staph infection that kept her bedridden for a week, on crutches for four more and in rehabilitation for a month after that.

Clark regained her health but not her form, enduring a slump that would have convinced her to retire if not for the overriding what-if factor.

“The last couple of World Cup races were really a struggle for me. I lost a little bit of strength toward the end of the season. That happens a little bit at the end of every season, but this year I went in with less,” Clark said. “If it were a different situation, I might have said, Yeah, I’m done.’ But I know I wasn’t 100 percent this year, and the last time I was 100 percent, I was ranked third in the world. So now I’m determined to get back to that level.”

Olympic giant slalom champion Julia Mancuso (1:20.14) and Stacey Cook (1:20.22) were the only rivals within one second of Clark. Resi Stiegler and Megan McJames rounded out the top five.

Mancuso went immediately after Clark in the running order, but it was a conversation before the noontime start that convinced the 22-year-old Californian she’d have trouble trumping the hometown favorite.

“All of us were saying, The course is just too gnarly right now.’ And she just kind of looked at us and said, What are you talking about? It’s fine.’ It’s obvious from the way she skied that she thought it was fine,” Mancuso said.

Lindsey Kildow harbored legitimate hopes of winning the gold when she breezed through the first two checkpoints with the fastest split time. As Kildow approached a right-left corner sequence just out of the view of spectators standing at the finish line, however, she crashed.

It’s the same fate she suffered in an Olympic training run last month.

“I think I bruised my butt pretty good,” Kildow said. “I just caught an edge and got hooked up. That’s been happening to me a lot lately. Maybe that’s a sign that I should be done for the season.”

To keep the competition moving, officials stagger two skiers on the course at all times. Cook had already left the gate prior to Kildow’s spill, entitling the eventual bronze medalist to a drawn-out do-over.

“They couldn’t find a snowmobile to take me back up, so I had to wait a while for that,” said Cook. “Then I waited in the tent until I thought I was ready. I was planning to go behind No. 20 (Gould Academy student Klara Krizova), but at the last minute I decided to go behind No. 21. Then No. 20 crashed, so I almost got flagged for the second time.”

There were no flags for Clark. And after Cook’s charge to third, there were no skiers fast or experienced enough to deny Clark her seventh career U.S. championship and first since 2001. That year, Clark captured her fourth straight downhill at nationals.

When the cheers of Kristen! Kristen!” die down later this week, Clark will retreat to a warmer climate for rest and relaxation. She’ll also take care of one other forgotten detail.

“I need to pay that hospital bill,” she said.