Sugar Bowl Ski Team & Academy alumnus Luke Winters led the U.S. Alpine Ski Team in Zagreb, Croatia, finishing 28th during a World Cup night slalom event on Sunday.

Winters, 22, raced to his second straight top-30 finish on the World Cup circuit, and now has picked up cup points in consecutive events.

“My goal for the season was to just be in the mix — be in the top 30 as much as I can be,” said Luke, who is competing in his first full World Cup season, during an interview with U.S. Ski & Snowboard. “I’m happy with where I’m at right now. You can’t always be up in the top five.

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“I know I have the speed to be up there,” added Winters. “But I know it takes a lot of experience to ski that consistently and that’s what I’m going to keep working on and working towards.”

Winters finished his two runs with a combined time of 1 minute, 59.96 seconds.

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France’s Clement Noel, 22, picked up his second World Cup win of the season, finishing with a total time of 1:57.14. For full results, visit FIS-Ski.com.

The men next head to Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, for another round of night slalom on Wednesday, before traveling to Adelboden, Switzerland, for giant slalom and slalom this weekend.

Nor-Am Cup: O’Brien picks up slalom win

Defending North American Cup overall champion, Nina O’Brien, 22, competed in her first North American Cup events of the season last weekend, and picked up a first- and third-place finish.

After competing in World Cup and European Cup events to open the 2019-20 Alpine season, O’Brien, who grew up racing for the Squaw Valley Ski Team, returned to the U.S. to race slalom and giant slalom at Burke Mountain Resort in Vermont.

After not finishing her first run in Thursday’s giant slalom event, O’Brien picked up a third-place finish in giant slalom the following day.

O’Brien then picked up her first win of the season, edging the Netherlands Adriana Jelinkova, 24, by 0.10 to claim victory in Saturday’s slalom event.

Fellow Squaw Valley Ski Team member, Keely Cashman, 20, was also competing at Burke Mountain last week, and posted a pair of top-five finishes.

After not finishing her second run in Thursday’s giant slalom, Cashman came back and took fourth in the same event the next day. She then finished in fifth place in slalom on Saturday. Cashman currently holds the lead in the overall series standings. She also leads the North American Cup standings in downhill, alpine combined, and super-G.

Another skier with ties to the area, Lila Lapanja, 25, was also competing and claimed a 14th in giant slalom and a sixth in slalom. Lapanja is third in the overall series standings and is first in the slalom standings.

Sugar Bowl’s Ainsley Proffit, 18, was at Burke Mountain as well and took 17th in slalom.

Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. Contact him at jscacco@sierrasun.com.