Johnny Spillane and Bill Demong came together for two U.S. top-10 finishes Sunday in a World Cup event in Trondheim, Norway. Spillane, of Steamboat Springs, finished fifth; Demong was seventh. Finland’s Anssi Koivuranta won the competition.

“Today was just better jumping,” Spillane said. “I was more relaxed on the hill and not trying to control things as much. I think it allowed a better jump.

“As far as the racing went, the race was pretty good. I was third for most of the race, but I was a little bit tired at the finish and wasn’t able to hold on.”

Spillane was 14th after the jumping round and finished ninth in the cross-country portion. Demong was 31st in jumping and took third in the cross-country event to finish.

“Johnny jumped way better” Sunday, Nordic Combined coach Chris Gilbertson said. “He had more confidence in what he was doing. We looked at videos last night of (Saturday’s) jump and looked at a few things. He’s just had to put confidence into the move and it worked out.”

Gilbertson said Demong may not have jumped as well as he did Saturday, but he skied better.

“I think he got a little too excited going into the comp round, maybe a little too much. So he paid for that but made it back up in the cross-country race and skied a better race,” Gilbertson said. “I think he would admit that (Saturday) he went out too hard, so (Sunday) he tried to ski a little bit more in control. He just had confidence in what he was doing today and used his cross-country skiing to get him up to his place.”

The U.S. team spent a few days last week in Lillehammer, Norway, practicing jumping. Gilbertson said the better the athletes are in jumping, the closer they will be to a podium finish.

“With jumping, they are almost in the top 10, and our goal is to get them in there because when that happens, podiums are possible,” Gilbertson said.

The Nordic combined competition scheduled for Dec. 13 and 14 in Liberec, Czech Republic, has been canceled because of poor weather conditions. The event has not yet been rescheduled.