LAKE PLACID, N.Y. • On a rainy, blustery winter day that felt a little like spring, Katie Uhlaender recovered from a disastrous first run to finish seventh at the skeleton world championships Friday at Mount Van Hoevenberg.

Her wrenching season over, the tough part was just beginning.

Her father, Ted, had been to every world championship with her. He died of a heart attack Feb. 12 at his Kansas farm after a yearlong battle with cancer. He was 69.

Uhlaender’s mom, Karen, and two brothers, Scott and William, were at the track Friday. So was the feeling that someone was missing.

“This race was the real reality that my father’s gone. Because he never would’ve missed this race,” she said after the race.

Germany almost swept, finishing 1-3-4. Marion Trott, who set the track record in her first run Thursday (55.45 seconds), held onto her lead despite Friday’s deteriorating track conditions due to rain and wind. Trott finished with a four-heat time of 3 minutes, 47.97 seconds.

Great Britain’s Amy Williams was second in 3:48.56 and Kerstin Syzmkowiak was third in 3:48.61.

Despite the home-track advantage, Uhlaender was the top American finisher in 3:49.32. Noelle Pikus-Pace was eighth in 3:49.46.

“My dad would’ve been so proud of her,” William said. “I’m happy for her.”

Uhlaender, second at last year’s worlds and third in 2007, was primed for a better finish until exposed curve 18, where she felt a wind gust slow her.

Uhlaender, 24, grew up in Parshall, outside Silverthorne, where she now lives part time. Her other home is Lake Placid, where she holds the track’s start record in skeleton, the Olympic sport where competitors slide down a bobsled track headfirst on a flat sled without brakes.

She spent the week before the season’s biggest event, the world championships, at her father’s funeral. She knew he would want her to compete, just as he had urged her to do all season.

Her father was a strapping Major League Baseball player for Minnesota, Cleveland and Cincinnati from 1965-72. He didn’t want his daughter to lose her competitive edge because of his illness. She wound up finishing third overall in the World Cup, but the season took its toll emotionally.

“My dad was in and out of the hospital all year,” Uhlaender said. “I wanted to come home, my mom wanted me to come home, and my dad told me if I got on the plane he’d kick my (butt).”

After Thursday’s first run, coming to worlds looked like a mistake. Uhlaender, a two-time World Cup champion who has won four medals in four races on this track, stood in 13th place.

She finished the second run red-eyed and wiping tears from her face with her gloved hand.

“I screwed up the first heat yesterday because I looked up and I think I was trying to be too tough and ignore it,” she said through tears Friday. “I felt like he was going to show up and I looked up and he wasn’t there, and then I broke down and I let it out and I think I was able to start focusing again.”

Uhlaender’s last three runs gave her confidence she’ll find her groove again next season.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an athlete as mentally tough as Katie Uhlaender, ” said Darrin Steele, bobsled and skeleton federation director and former bobsledder. “Dealing with what she had to deal with, she was in limbo, she’s a girl that likes things cut-and-dried, black and white. She doesn’t like not knowing what the future’s going to have for her. … I couldn’t be happier with her performance given what she went through to get here.”

Now, she’s going to pick up the pieces. She and Scott will go to her father’s farm and organize his possessions. A while back before the stock market tanked, Ted Uhlaender sagely advised Katie to use some of her winnings to buy 13 cows. She did.

“Got a farm to run, with cows,” she said. “That’s the goal at this point.”

Then, “I’d like to go home and rest and mourn and let it all sink in,” she said.

After all, spring is just around the corner.

She’s already looking ahead, dedicating next season, when the 2010 Olympics will be held in Vancouver, to her dad.

“I’m just more excited for next season because I know that’s what my dad was focused on. I’m going for it for him. “Next year,” she said, “is going to be a whole ‘nother ballgame.”

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