Deutschnofen, Italy (WJMN) – The US Natural Track Luge Team is midway through its schedule, in this year’s World Cup competition. Our Team USA hails from Lucy Hill in Negaunee, the only Natural Track Luge run in the country. Local 3 had a chance to talk with the entire team after a long day of training. Senior team member Zane Farnsworth is seeing some good overall times.

“Placement-wise, I think it was pretty good.” said Farnsworth. “Tori got 12 Right? Yeah, I got 13 Katie got 10 in the women’s division, and then Jacob here got 19.”

So far, they are turning in respectable times, both as individuals and as a team. With six races completed, most of Team USA consistently placed in the top 20, a noticeable improvement from last year. Highest scoring member Torrey Cookman agrees.

“I just kind of picked up exactly where I left off in terms of my abilities and my positions and I’ve just kept on improving from that. So I’m pretty happy,” said Torrey Cookman.

A noticeable improvement from last year according to the sole female member of the team, Katie Cookman.  

“My luging abilities have definitely improved since last year,” said Katie Cookman.

However, sometimes, it just doesn’t go your way.

“I ended up crashing three times. In the same corner, on three different runs,” admitted new team member Jacob Sterk.

The team has been on the go since arriving in Europe, and their travels are far from over.

“We’re in Austria now,” said Torrey “And we’ll be here through maybe Thursday or Friday or Saturday and then we go back to Italy. We’ll train in Deutchenofen, Italy which is where the World Championships will be. Let’s see if we can hit three juniors and three seniors. Yeah, so we’ve hit six or three World Cups and three Junior World Cups and we’ve got the World Championship and two World Cups left to go.”

It’s not all about racing, the chance to represent the USA in international competition is sometimes just as rewarding.

“It’s amazing,” said Torrey. “Like we get to walk out there with the USA jackets on and see people from all around the world with their countries. It’s just a really cool opportunity to learn about how other people view your country and learn about other cultures as well.”

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