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Park City • Racing before family and friends, Salt Lake City's Preston Griffall and teammate Matthew Mortensen captured fifth place in the doubles competition at the Viessmann Luge World Cup on Saturday at Utah Olympic Park.

In a rarity, two Austrian teams tied for the gold medal. Peter Penz and Georg Fischler raced to a draw against Andreas Linger and Wolfgang Linger, each finishing in 1:27.331.

Germany's Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt took the bronze, a little more than one-tenth of a second ahead of Griffall and Mortensen.

"I had about 25 people, family and friends, for support," said Griffall, an Olympus High graduate. "That was pretty awesome. It's not all the time that we get that.

"I'm pretty psyched about getting a top five. That qualifies us for the world championships this year, so I'm looking forward to that. I'm super happy to put down two decent runs in a race and go and relax during Christmas break."

Griffall is three months removed from completing the U.S. Army's World-Class Athlete Program, having graduated in September after training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

"It was a crazy summer for me," Griffall said. "Not the typical training that I would normally have during the summer. Physically, it was a lot different.

"But the biggest thing Matt and I took out of it was the mental aspect of it. … That's what basic training is all about. They break you down, then build you back up, and it's a big mental game. It makes you mentally tough, and that directly translates to luge."

The gold-medal tie was the first in World Cup luge competition since February 2003.

Americans Christian Niccum and Jayson Terdiman finished sixth in the 16-team field, while the team of Shane Hook and Zachary Clark was 15th.

In the men's competition Saturday evening, five-time defending World Cup champion Armin Zoggeler of Italy won his 52nd career World Cup race, with a two-run time of 1:30.740.

"I'm speechless," said Zoggeler, who won for the third time this season. "Before the second run, I felt secure. The second run, there were some mistakes, but it was good enough for the victory."

Zoggeler led Germany's Andi Langehan by 0.2 seconds after the first run. Langehan took silver, .252 seconds back, and Russian Viktor Kneyb won bronze. The top American finisher was Bergt Walden, in 19th place.

"The time was definitely not there," said Walden, who was 17th after the first run. —

Saturday's results

At Utah Olympic Park

Men's doubles

Gold • Peter Penz/Georg Fischler, Austria, 1:27.331

Gold • Andreas Linger/Wolfgang Linger, Austria, 1:27.331

Bronze • Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt, Germany, 1:27.474

Men's individual

Gold • Armin Zoggeler, Italy, 1:30.740

Silver • Andi Langenhan, Germany, 1:30.992

Bronze • Viktor Kneyb, Russia, 1:31.097 —

Photo gallery

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