Freestyle: Kearney wins at Deer Valley

It doesn’t get anymore bluebird than Deer Valley today for the 2009 Visa Freestyle FIS World Cup International. And mogul skiers don’t get any better than Hanna Kearney. The Vermont native won today’s competition, taking the yellow World Cup leader’s bib out right, after podiuming at every moguls event this season. She came into the day tied for first with Canadian Jennifer Heil.It doesn’t get anymore bluebird than Deer Valley today for the 2009 Visa Freestyle FIS World Cup International. And mogul skiers don’t get any better than Hanna Kearney. The Vermont native won today’s competition, taking the yellow World Cup leader’s bib out right, after podiuming at every moguls event this season. She came into the day tied for first with Canadian Jennifer Heil.

“My first run I skied defensively and when you ski defensively, generally, you make mistakes,” said Kearney. “The second run I just went for it I had nothing to lose.”

After missing most of the last two years due to injuries, Kearney’s is soaking up all the success she can. “It’s a nice view from the top but it’s a longer fall, so I’d like to stay here,” she said.

Teammate Michelle Roak joined Kearney on the podium in second, followed by Austrian Margarita Marbler in third.

The American women looked strong, taking half of the top-ten spots in front of the home crowd. Shannon Bahrke, Kayla Snyderman and Shelly Roberts finished sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively. “The girls definitely stepped up on a really tough course today,” said U.S. women’s moguls head coach, Scott Rawles. “Particularly Hannah and Michelle really put it together today.”

Rawles has seen Kearney’s hard work in the off-season pay off and doesn’t see her slowing down anytime soon. “She’s obviously in the zone right now and I have a real good feeling that she’s going to be able to stay on this roll,” said Rawles.

On the men’s side, it was Frenchman Guilbaut Colas with the win, followed by Canadian World Cup leader Alexandre Bilodeau in second and American Patrick Deneen in third.

“I just skied the plan,” said Deneen. Apparently the plan was to do a little big rigging. The Washington native threw a huge “truck driver” off the bottom jump, thrilling the U.S. fans.

“Pat did a really good job, he had some awesome training this week, and really put it together when he needed to,” said Rawles.  

Americans Landon Gardner (7th) and David Digravio (10th) also grabbed top-ten points on what the athletes called the most difficult course on the World Cup. “Unless you brought a lot of intensity and focus on what you were doing, you weren’t going to get it done,” said Rawles of the course that got rained on only five days earlier, to produce hard, icy conditions, especially above the two jumps. 

Bilodeau is now 80 points ahead of Pierre-Alexander Rousseau in the World Cup moguls standings. Rousseau missed the final run after crashing during the qualifying run.

The bumpers will have another go Saturday night at the duals competition, an event they’ve all been looking forward to. “I think that the guys that didn’t have success today will come out swinging Saturday,” Rawles said. “We’re always really fired up for night duals at Deer Valley. It’s basically the marquee event on tour.”

The Visa Freestyle FIS World Cup International continues tomorrow with a night aerials competition back at Deer Valley.

For complete results click here.