U.S. Snowboarding rider Michelle Gorgone led the USA, finishing fifth in the season opening PGS Saturday in Soelden. Austrian Doresia Krings picked up the win, knocking off Swiss Ursula Bruhins in the head-to-head finals on the Rettenbach glacier, one of the highest race courses in the world at nearly 10,000 feet.

While she missed the podium, it was a strong opener for Gorgone who lost only one round all day. Gorgone opened with a win over Austrian Manuela Riegler, then lost to eventual second place finisher Bruhins in the quarter finals. Gorgone went on to knock off France's Isabelle Blanc and Amelie Kober of Germany to take fifth.

Gorgone's big win of the day came over Kober, a 17-year old German sensation and World Junior champion who led qualifying. On their first run, Gorgone and Kober both hip-checked on the same gate, but the American was quicker to get back on course and won the heat. Gorgone came back to cleanly win the second to take fifth.

"I was really happy for Michelle today," said U.S. Snowboarding Alpine Coach Jan Wengelin, who returned to the team this year after a two-year absence. "She has listened and learned and now she's starting to really believe in the training she's been doing. She rode great all day. She was also had a little luck, but that's all a part of the game."

Gorgone moved into the 16 rider finals qualifying 11th, with Stacia Hookom (Edwards, CO) just missed the cut, finishing 17th in the second and final qualifying run. Lisa Kosglow (Boulder, CO) also made the second qualifying run, but finished 31st, missing the finals.

"It's really hard to miss at 17th -- especially when she hung in there at 16th (in qualifying) so long," said Wengelin of Hookom. "She's really pushing her envelope right now and she's going to do very well. But missing it by around 15 hundredths is tough."

Kosglow ran well in the first run of qualifying, but had trouble in the second. In her only loss of the day, "Lisa was actually riding better in the second run, but got low on a gate and went into the soft new snow along the course which cost her time."

Weather caused organizers to make several changes in the past week on the glacier course, which was woefully low on snow earlier in the week. "We had snowfall of 10 and 12 centimeters in the last few days, including some overnight. So after they made a decision last week to run up higher on the glacier, they changed mid-week and we ran on the regular course into the stadium. But there was a lot of snow alongside the course in qualifying, which they fortunately did clean up for finals."

The men will open Sunday on the glacier with high hopes. "The men are riding well," said Wengelin. "Peter Thorndike, Chris (Klug) are doing well, Eric Warren is doing very well and Adam (Smith) will be able to ride despite a hamstring tear 10 days ago (right leg). We've been staying at the U.S. men's ski team hotel and their trainer Paul Meier has done a super, super job helping Adam get back to start on Sunday."