IGLS, Austria – Nathan Crumpton maintained his overnight position to finish as the top American in eighth place Friday at the men’s skeleton World Championships in Igls, Austria.

Olympic bronze medalist Matt Antoine chased down his teammate to move up into ninth, and Kyle Brown finished 13th.

“I’m ecstatic to have a top 10 finish, but I’m also relieved to be finished,” Crumpton said. “It’s a wonderful conclusion to the championships. I’m stoked with the outcome after a shaky first run.”

Latvian Martins Dukurs held his lead and broke the track record with a final run of 52.09 to claim the 2016 World Championship title with a total time of 3:28.84. Russian Alexander Tretiakov and Korean Sungbin Yun tied for second place, finishing 1.13 seconds off the speedy pace set by Dukurs with a cumulative time of 3:29.97.

Crumpton, a former NCAA Division I track and field athlete from Princeton, posted starts of 5.00 and 4.95 seconds for runs of 52.87 and 52.98 seconds, respectively, in the final heats. His third run was eighth best of the heat, and despite only the 11th best time of the final run, Crumpton managed to maintain his eighth-place position with a four-run combined time of 3:32.12.

“I made a couple of mistakes at the bottom and I thought Matt would pass me because he’s been so fast at the bottom,” Crumpton said. “Matt is the guy that I’ve looked up to since I entered the sport. He’s a tremendous athlete, I still look up to him, and he’s really helped me get up to speed on tour.”

Antoine entered Friday’s final heats in 11th position. The veteran gained two positions after clocking the seventh best time of the first run, 52.83, to chase down Crumpton. Antoine raced to the finish in 53.03 in the final heat and fell 0.11 seconds short of his teammate for ninth with an aggregate time of 3:32.23.

“My runs were pretty decent but I made a few mistakes here and there,” Antoine said. “It’s a push track. I’m disappointed, but it’s the expected result. I guess I can say I met my goal because I wanted a top 10 finish, but it’s not a goal I’m necessarily happy with.”

Igls is one of the shortest tracks on tour, making start times even more important. Antoine changed up his training routine last summer, but his start times suffered. He’s now back on the program that led him to the Olympic podium, but Antoine knows he won’t see results for months. Friday he posted start times of 5.08 and 5.09, 22nd and 17th best of the field.

“Next week will be kind of an unceremonious end of the season,” Antoine said. “I learned some hard lessons last summer and this season, so we’ll see what I take from those lessons and how I can come back next season.”

What Brown lacked in consistency he made up in heart. After a problematic first heat Thursday, Brown threw down with everything he had Friday with hopes of moving up. The World Championship rookie made a few minor mistakes in the first heat and fell back a spot with a push of 5.04 and run time of 53.20 seconds. Undeterred, Brown bounded off the start in 4.98 and improved his run to 52.92 seconds to bring himself up to 13th with a four-heat total time of 3:32.70.

World Championship action continues today with the final heats of the women’s skeleton competition and the first two heats of the four-person bobsled race.