VAIL, Colorado — So much for the concept that Midwesterners from small bunny slopes can't ski downhill.

Nicholas Mitchell of Welch Valley (Red Wing, Minn.) struck gold in Saturday's J3 Junior Olympics boys downhill on Golden Peak in Vail. With Buck Hill's Connor Croasdale (Burnsville, Minn.) taking second, the Central Region went 1-2, thank you very much.

Ski and Snowboard Club Vail's Nick Santaniello got the locals on the board with a bronze.

“It feels great,” Mitchell said. “I trained really hard for this all season. I built up to it. I'm glad that I'm peaking and skiing real well.”

“It's really cool for me,” Croasdale said. “The Midwest, we never ski downhill. It feels pretty good to get a podium in the speed events.”

While Mitchell and other Central racers don't get as much downhill training as they'd probably like, his gold really doesn't come as a surprise. The Welch Valley racer was sixth in the downhill here last year.

Mitchell also won both training runs on Golden Peak earlier this week. He won by a healthy margin with a time of 45.45 seconds, 7-tenths faster ahead of Croasdale (46.16).

As expected, the course got faster Saturdayand that put the focus on Launching Pad, a jump in the middle of the trail.

“I really needed to nail the jump, which I kind of did,” Mitchell said. “I prepped my hips for it and got my legs all ready, but I was carrying a lot more speed into it. The track was faster today. I did it well for how the track was today.”

The jump brought racers into Main Arena, and there, the final turn of the course, Roundhouse, had skiers hanging on to scrape by that 16th and final gate.

“It got me a little late,” Croasdale said. “I just had to keep the late line going down the course, so I could keep my speed. It worked out.”

While, Mitchell is medium-sized and Croasdale is a big J3, young master Santaniello showed that he could hang with the best. He laid down a 46.27 as the second racer of the day, and held off Nicolas Veth of Taos, N.M. by 5-hundredths of a second for third.

“I'm very excited. I just really laid it down,” Santaniello said. “I came out hard. I've been working the whole season just to be the fastest skier I can and it's starting to pay off.

“I think if you keep a tight line and give it your all, you'll go fast as all the bigger guys. Usually, the best skier wins, and that's how it goes.”

Hayden Fake (Telluride) continued to be the model of consistency, finishing fifth in 46.39. By the way, Fake and Vail moguls racer Heidi Kloser are cousins, and the latter was on hand to watch the races before she heads out for Sweden Monday.

Jake Bender of Winter Park punched in at sixth, followed by Aspen's Devon Cardamone, who likely had the wildest ride on Roundhouse.

Aspen's Travis Lundin, Breckenridge's Nick Bailey and SSCV's Nick Romano rounded out the top 10.

The boys race super-G today at noon.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.

Junior Olympics

At Golden Peak

Today

Super-G, girls at 10:30 a.m., boys at noon

Monday

Girls giant slalom, 10 a.m.

Tuesday

Boys giant slalom, 10 a.m.

Wednesday

Slalom, 9:30 a.m., at Beaver Creek's Bear Trap