USA Luge finalizes team headed to start World Cup season

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) USA Luge's roster for the start of the World Cup season is set, with 14 sliders being formally tabbed for the team after the completion of a series of three seeding races on Thursday night.

Tucker West won all three of the men's seeding races and is headed back to World Cup competition, along with Chris Mazdzer, Taylor Morris and Jonny Gustafson. Mazdzer was third in the overall World Cup standings last winter.

''Each week we're getting better and better, progressing more and more, and I feel like that's still true,'' West said. ''Every day I'm getting more comfortable on the sled. We're figuring out what (sled) setup's working for us. We're making adjustments to our equipment. Things are looking good for us.''

Emily Sweeney prevailed for the second straight women's race and won that seeding series. Sweeney, Olympic bronze medalist and former world champion Erin Hamlin, Summer Britcher and Raychel Germaine are the women's World Cup team selections for the Americans.

Sweeney has had a strong fall season, despite racing with a surgically repaired wrist that is hampering her abilities at the start - which is critical in any sliding discipline.

''My wrist is OK. It's pretty tired right now,'' Sweeney said. ''I've asked a lot of it the past few days and I'm just trying to get the inflammation back down and get ahead of it. So that'll be my goal for my wrist for the next few days. Sliding-wise, I have a few things I have to clean up for when we come back for the World Cup.''

In doubles, the teams of Jake Hyrns-Anthony Espinoza, Justin Krewson-Andrew Sherk, and Matt Mortensen-Jayson Terdiman are all World Cup-bound. All three teams won a race during the seeding series.

The teams leave for Europe on Saturday, and the World Cup season starts Nov. 26 in Winterberg, Germany.