CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Tim Jitloff reached the bottom of the giant slalom course on the Narrow Gauge trail at the end of his second run Tuesday and didn’t like what he heard, or actually, what he didn’t hear.

“I came into the finish and it was really quiet. I was, like, ‘Oh, God,'” Jitloff said.

Perhaps Jitloff just heaved a sigh of relief that drowned out all of the other noise.

The former Junior World champion picked up his first victory in more than a year by edging Tommy Ford by 0.10 seconds in his two runs to win his first ever U.S. Alpine giant slalom championship.

“I needed that,” he said. “I haven’t gotten a win in a long time, and that feels really good. It’s totally satisfying. I had a great game plan and I executed it.”

The 23-year-old San Jose, Calif., native finished with a combined time of 2:04.67 on a calm, cloudless day at Sugarloaf. Ford (2:04.77) and Colby College graduate Warner Nickerson (2:06.22) rounded out the podium.

Even though World Cup GS champion Ted Ligety hasn’t been competing at the Nationals due to an injured thumb, Jitloff had plenty of additional pressure besides just needing a win for his psyche.

“There was going to be no beating around the bush on this second run because I had about five guys right on my tail,” Jitloff said. “At that point, I just said, ‘I’ve got to go full gas.'”

Jitloff and Ford finished 1-2 in the first run, then flip-flopped on the faster afternoon run.

“I looked right at the course and I knew exactly what I’ve got to do, and I knew how I was going to feel going through it,” he added. “It didn’t necessarily feel that way coming down, because a couple of times I got out of control.”

Ford enjoyed another successful run at Sugarloaf, where he finished 11th in combined at the U.S. Nationals two years ago.

“It’s a fun course,” he said. “The snow was getting a little slicker than the first run. There’s a little groove there and it’s easy to work, so it helped maintain your speed.”

Nickerson vaulted from fifth place following the first run with a time of 1:01.69 on his second trip. That was only 11th best in the second run, but Jimmy Cochran, who defended his national slalom title on Saturday, did not finish after sitting in fourth place after the first run, and Jake Zamansky’s afternoon effort was a little more than a second slower than Nickerson’s.

“The key to this hill is always bringing a little bit of shape into the top of Snow Bowl, and then hammering right onto the headwall, and then trying to be quick off the headwall, and then full-pin all the way to the bottom,” Nickerson said. “I pivoted a few times up there in the middle, but it is a little slick up there. It’s the best day of the week by far here. And, it’s great coming back to Sugarloaf. I love this place.”

Now, so does Jitloff, who picked up his first gold medal since a NorAm giant slalom win on March 14, 2007 (he was the 2007 NorAm GS champion with two wins). He also has a bronze from Saturday’s slalom.

“I’ve had an extremely rough year, both inside the sport and out of it, and there was definitely a point of time where I could have just taken a month off or even called it a day,” said Jitloff, who now lives in Reno, Nev. “My coaches sat me down, and we talked about it, and I just decided the best way to do it was to claw my way out of the bottom of the barrel.”

Auburn’s Bump Heldman finished 19th overall in 2:08.15.