Altenberg. USA Luge’s Chris Mazdzer (Saranac Lake, N.Y.), Erin Hamlin (Remsen, N.Y.) and Matthew Mortensen (Huntington Station, N.Y.) head into the holiday break as top ranked junior luge World Cup sliders. Mazdzer leads the overall Youth A (to age 17) men’s singles standings after three races, while Hamlin paces the Junior (to age 20) women’s singles field and Mortensen leads all Junior (to age 20) men’s singles sliders. Mazdzer maintained his hold on the overall top spot after sliding to an American-best fourth place finish during Saturday’s Youth A men’s singles race held in Altenberg, Germany. The 16-year-old Mazdzer clocked a two-run time of one minute, 29.168 seconds and finished .779 seconds behind the race ’s winner, Germany’s Felix Loch. Loch clocked a combined time of 1:28.389, .104 seconds faster than his second place teammate, Eric Zoellner, who raced to a total time of 1:28.493, and .354 seconds in front of fellow German, Matthias Stiebing, whose bronze medal time was clocked at 1:28.743. USA Luge’s Connor O’Neill (Webster, Mass.) and Eli Cain (Muskegon, Mich.) recorded seventh and 10th-place finishes, respectively, while their teammates Mike McTigue (Worcester, Mass.) and Addison Dailey (Salt Lake City, Utah) slid to 12th and 14th-place results. Through three races, Mazdzer has picked up 260 points, 84 points more than O ’Neill, who’s second overall, and 120 points in front of Dailey, who sits in third place. Cain is ranked fifth heading into the holiday break, while McTigue is seventh overall. Hamlin recorded a two-run time of 1:29.576 and finished fourth in Saturday’s Junior women’s singles event. Natalie Geisenberger cruised past the 23-sled field with a combined time of 1:28.886, while her teammates Corinna Martini and Atrid Scharfe posted second and third place results, respectively. Martini’s silver medal time stopped the clock at 1:29.146, while Scharfe slipped into the bronze medal spot with a combined time of 1:29.148. After three stops, Hamlin leads Geisenberger, who’s second overall, by 15 points (215-200). Hamlin’s teammate Megan Sweeney (Suffield, Conn.) slid to a 13th-place finish, Saturday, and sits in third place overall with 180 points. Amanda Allen (Lynbrook, N.Y.) finished 22nd, Saturday, and is 13th overall. Despite racing to a 12th-place finish, Mortensen still sits atop the Junior men’s singles standings with 202 points. The 18-year-old leads Germany’s Johannas Ludwig, who raced to Saturday’s gold medal, by two points and Austria’s Manuel Pfister by three points. In a heavy, wet snowfall, German sliders finished 1-2-3. Ludwig won the single-heat race with a time of 55.948, while Tobias Rabbach finished second after clocking a one-run time of 56.046. Peter Fischer slid to bronze in a time of 56.143.