PARK CITY, Utah (AP) The burly bobsledder from Texas is gonna have to lasso himself a couple of sleds.

American Todd Hays, trying to end a 46-year medal drought for the U.S. bobsled team, finished fifth Saturday after the first two runs of the two-man competition.

Driving the fire-engine red USA-1 sled, Hays and brakeman Garrett Hines completed their two runs in 1 minute, 35.41 seconds - 0.36 behind leader Christian Reich in Switzerland-1.

Hays, who grew up along the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas, will have to slide past two sleds in Sunday's final two heats for the United States to get its first medal since winning the four-man bronze at the 1956 Cortina Games.

"We're going to have to go back and regroup and try to rope someone in," Hays said.

It won't be easy for Hays with the drivers he has in front of him.

Reich, who finished fourth at Nagano four years ago, and teammate Steve Anderhub powered their black-and-gold sled to a track record 47.52 seconds in the first run and then followed up with a 47.53 down the 15-curve canyon course at Utah Olympic Park.

Reich has just a 0.01 lead over Germany's Christoph Langen, who won the two-man bronze and four-man gold at Nagano. Langen and his brakeman, Markus Zimmerman, matched the track record on their second try and trimmed 0.01 seconds off Reich's lead.

"Tomorrow it doesn't matter if you're the hunted or the hunter," Reich said. "We both have gold in our sights."

Switzerland's Martin Annen, the World Cup champion in two-man who crashed during training, is in third at 1:35.20.

Defending Olympic champion Pierre Lueders of Canada was fourth - 0.17 behind Annen and brakeman Beat Hefti.

Lueders said the slightest error can send anyone sliding down in the standings.

"There are a couple of corners that can give you a lot of problems," he said. "It's relatively steep. It's quick, and the time goes fast. Once it's gone, it's gone."

Italy's Guenther Huber, who shared gold in 1998 with Lueders, is eighth.

Brian Shimer of Naples, Fla., in his fifth Olympics, is in ninth place.

On Friday, Hays, a former linebacker from Tulsa, said he was "terrified" of his first Olympic drive, and admitted being shaky on his first trip down the mountain.

"The first run was great, I just didn't drive real well, simple as that," he said. "You can't come in here and drive like that and expect to beat the Swiss and Germans. The second run I thought I drove pretty well. We just didn't start well. It's inexplainable to me. But the good thing is we've got two more runs."

Only 37 of the scheduled 38 sleds competed in both runs after the Puerto Rican team of Michael Gonzales and Manuel Repollet failed to show at the track.

The Puerto Rican delegation pulled out of the Salt Lake City Games after discovering Gonzalez didn't meet its eligibility requirements. He couldn't prove he had lived on the island for three years.

The decision to keep him out of competition was made Friday night.

"He's a great, great guy, but those are the rules," said Hector Cardona, president of the Puerto Rican Olympic committee. "We have to follow the rules."

Latvian driver Sandis Prusis, banned for three months for steroid use before being reinstated in time for the games, was 10th and out of medal contention.

Hays could be in a similar bind.

With a cow-bell clanging capacity crowd of 15,000 roaring as they barreled out of the starting gate, Hays and Hines lost time on their first run with a few bumps and brushes of the retaining walls.

They were a little slower on their second start, but Hays said he was much more pleased with the way he handled his sled.

"I think I got it out of my system," Hays said. "I drove real well the second run. I need to do that twice tomorrow."

There was an anxious moment in the first run when the Russia-1 team couldn't retract one of its push bars after the start.

Driver Alexander Zoubkov tried unsuccessfully to pull the bar back in, but gave up and the sled sped the entire way down. An announcement warned spectators to step back from the track but the sled stayed on course and did not crash.

The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.