World Cup Moguls Competition Results from Whiteface Mountain: 01/19/2012

Whiteface Mountain hosted the FIS Freestyle World Cup moguls event yesterday, Thursday. I was particularly interested in this year’s competition since we had just skied Whiteface on Sunday and Monday and observed preparations underway on the Wilderness Trail, the site of yesterday’s competition. In typical rollercoaster fashion for this winter, the arctic temperatures we had during our days on the mountain were followed by rain Tuesday night. Then, returning cold temperatures turned the trails to boilerplate and high winds knocked out power and forced the closure of all lifts on Wednesday. Course workers must have put forth a monumental effort to restore the course to safe, competition-ready condition for Thursday’s events.

I was a bit surprised to find no coverage of the competition in this morning’s Times Union, Saratogian or Post Star. I guess that just means I’ll have to go up next year and cover the event myself. Following is the press release from ORDA / USSA.

Kearney Wins Record 11th Straight World Cup Event

WILMINGTON, N.Y. – Olympic Champion Hannah Kearney (Norwich, Vt.) won a record 11th consecutive FIS Freestyle World Cup moguls event with victory at the USANA Freestyle Cup at Whiteface Mountain. The title elevates Kearney past Switzerland’s Conny Kissling for the longest Freestyle World Cup win streak. World Champion Patrick Deneen (Cle Elum, Wash.) earned his first podium of the season, finishing second behind Mikael Kingsbury of Canada in the men's event.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Hannah Kearney won a record 11th consecutive FIS Freestyle World Cup with victory at the USANA Freestyle Cup in Lake Placid.
• Kearney’s historic win streak began January 21, 2011 in Lake Placid. It was the 16th individual moguls win of her career.
• Patrick Deneen was second for his first podium of the season.
• Four U.S. skiers finished in the top 8 as12 made the finals.
• Heather McPhie (Bozeman, Mont.) and Jeremy Cota (Carrabassett Valley, Maine) narrowly missed the podium with fourth.
• Weather hampered moguls training, but the Whiteface crew put in tremendous effort for a successful event.

QUOTES

• Hannah Kearney: The first two days of training were incredibly tough. Luckily I'm from Vermont and I'm used to crazy conditions. I had no idea there was a record to be broken. I didn’t know until the finish area today so I'm really excited about that. I know records are just a piece of data but it's a testament to consistency.
• Patrick Deneen: It's definitely been an interesting event because of all the weather, power outages and delayed training, but then the course workers spent all night on the hill and really softened up the course for us. Those guys are really awesome and I ended up having a really great race.
• Scott Rawles, Moguls Head Coach: We had a great day today; we had eight women make the final and four men. We were in contention for four podiums and got two, so I’m super stoked on that. With Hannah winning 11 in a row, she’s doing historical things, and with good showings from our new skiers, we have a lot to look forward to both next week in Calgary and the following week in Deer Valley, Utah.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

World Cup Freestyle competition continues Friday and Saturday in Lake Placid with aerials events under the lights at the Olympic Jumping Complex.



Top photo credit: Adirondack Daily Enterprise