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**truebluefan** · 01-08-2008, 08:23 PM

Lake Placid, NY Discuss event in here.

**truebluefan** · 01-18-2008, 10:37 AM

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (Jan. 16) - The FIS Freestyle World Cup schedule gets back into continuous action this week as the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup opens the tour's annual North American swing. "We're excited and we're ready to go," said U.S. Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen. NBC and Versus will provide TV coverage of the events.

The schedule calls for moguls competition Friday and Sunday at Whiteface Mountain in nearby Wilmington and the Nature Valley Freestyle Challenge aerials contest Saturday night at the Olympic Jumping Complex. New snow and continued cold, which has enabled snowmakers to create greater depth, have produced "outstanding" conditions.

"We've got a young team with several athletes getting their first taste of the World Cup, but we've been waiting for this chance to get going," Wintersteen said Wednesday as he watched aerials training.

The U.S. moguls skiers have had one contest in Tignes, France, and aerialists will be competing for the first time this season after skipping the season opener in China on the weekend before Christmas.

"The aerials hill is really good. Ryan [St. Onge - Winter Park, CO] is jumping very well and is our lead guy. Scotty Bahrke [Park City, UT] was the aerials Rookie of the Year last season and he's qualified now to throw his full, double-full, full [four twists, three flips], so that's a big step forward for him. Emily Cook [Belmont, MA] leads the women again. Jana Lindsey [Black Hawk, SD] is back and Allison Treleaven [Fort Wayne, IN] is carrying momentum after winning the NorAm aerials event this past weekend in Quebec," Wintersteen said.

"Lake Placid has been a good venue for us in previous years and even though we've got some athletes getting experience this year, we're still looking for success," he added.

NBC will televise moguls coverage Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. ET while Versus will have coverage of the Nature Valley Freestyle Challenge aerials Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. ET. Versus will re-air moguls coverage Feb. 2 at 5 p.m. ET.

**truebluefan** · 01-20-2008, 08:49 PM

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (Jan. 18) - Emiko Torito (Denver) won her first World Cup moguls event and two teammates reached their first podium Friday as the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup got underway in a snowstorm at Whiteface Mountain. While Torito claimed her first victory, Kayla Snyderman (Winchester, MA) was third in the women's contest. Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) finished third in the men's event. NBC will broadcast coverage Jan. 27 at 3:30 p.m. ET.

"I was insanely nervous before my first run," Torito said at the finish. "But the course was better than it was in training and I kept focusing on technical things like keeping my eyes up and keeping my feet underneath me. Second run, I still was nervous, but I told myself, 'You're ready. You're ready!'"

She led qualifying in the morning and said she sat on her jitters before the final run. Her two jumps were a helicopter off the first "air" and a back-flip off the bottom jump as she won with 25.17 points. She was more than a full point ahead of Italy's Deborah Scanzio (23.98). Kayla Snyderman (Winchester, MA), who won a NorAm dual moguls event over the weekend in Quebec, finished third at 23.70.

"It's been such a long time coming and I get emotional just thinking about it. I can't count how many times I've imagined winning," said Torito, whose family lives in Denver, but who skis out of the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. Snyderman came through Nick Preston's program at Waterville Valley, NH. She will enter her sophomore year at Dartmouth College in the spring.

Winner thrilled for teammates
"Our whole team made finals [i.e., 16 skiers qualifying]. We have such a strong team and I really believe on any given day, any of us could win, could be on the podium," Torito said. The snow helped soften what had been an icy course "and made it more forgiving," she added.

Snyderman said winning a dual moguls event at Val St. Come, Que., during the weekend helped propel her to the World Cup podium. "I know I've been skiing well and I wanted to keep it up. I exceeded my expectations, though, so I'm really happy."

Despite the gusting winds, visibility was not too bad on Wilderness bumps run. "It was definitely different than on our training days. With a few inches of powder, it was so much fun," Snyderman said.

Warren Tanner of Canada qualified 14th but laid down a solid final run that edged Olympic and defending World Cup champion Dale Begg-smith of Australia by six-hundredths of a point, 25.55-25.49. Deneen, who qualified for the World Cup start out of the U.S. Freestyle Selections events last month, filled the podium with his run worth 25.22.

Like Snyderman, he won a moguls contest on the weekend at Val St. Come and used it as a springboard to his podium. "I came in here and wanted to stay the same as I was [skiing] in the NorAms where I've been winning the [moguls] events. I focused my mind and stayed right there.

Deneen: Reaching finals defused pressures
"And once I qualified second, it was like all the pressure was off. It felt great to be in finals and I told myself I just needed to lay down my run, and it worked out beautifully."

He praised event organizers "for all the pine boughs they put on the course. It made it so easy to see everything, even with the wind and some blowing snow."

The Nature Valley Freestyle Cup moves on to an aerials event Saturday night at Lake Placid's Olympic Jumping Complex. Sunday, the weekend schedule ends with another moguls contest at Whiteface.

**truebluefan** · 01-20-2008, 08:50 PM

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (Jan. 19) - U.S. aerialists got into their first World Cup action of the season Saturday night in a mild snowstorm. Veterans Ryan St. Onge (Winter Park, CO) and Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) led U.S. skiers, including Allison Treleaven (Fort Wayne, IN), who recorded a top-10 performance in her first World Cup at the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup. Versus will televise coverage Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. ET.

World Cup champion Jacqui Cooper of Australia remained unbeaten after three events this winter, earning 213.95 points with China's Xinxin Guo runner-up at 198.21. Steve Omischl of Canada, who has been training at Lake Placid since he was 15, won the men's competition with 243.47 points to fatten his margin as the men's aerials leader.

St. Onge, who qualified fourth, finished sixth after losing points with a shaky landing in the final round. The lone U.S. man to reach finals, he had 218.07 points. "I'm going week by week, looking to get better each week," he said.

"I felt like we've been on hold the whole year until now. It's been train, train, train, wait to compete, wait to compete, wait to compete - and finally now, go! I'm feeling good and taking steps in the right direction, and I can't wait for the next competition," St. Onge said.

The weather was tricky with the Olympic Jumping Complex looking like a snow globe with a sky full of flurries swirling in the night lights. "Lake Placid always does such a good job, and this was particularly true tonight," St. Onge said. "There's nothing the Organizing Committee can do about wind, but they certainly took care of everything else, and they were patient, so we could jump in the best possible conditions."

Cook also had trouble with her second landing, but echoed St. Onge in being happy to compete. "I was going for it. I wanted it and when you're going for it, I don't think you have to apologize for anything. I would've loved to stick that final landing, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't holding back," she said.

Treleaven is a former gymnast who turned to freestyle a couple of years ago when she called Nick Preston at Waterville Valley, NH, to coach her. She won a NorAm aerials meet last weekend at Mont Gabriel, Que., and came to Lake Placid with confidence from that victory, even if it was her first World Cup contest.

"It was awesome to be jumping with all these great girls," she said. "It was amazing, and for me to reach for that level to win and now to see what [World Cup] girls are doing to win. I saw what I have to do to get there myself.

"Mont Gabriel was a good experience and got me confident with my jumping, and putting two good jumps to my feet. Coming in, I was confident but I really was coming here more for the experience. It's certainly been a good one."

The second moguls event of the weekend at Whiteface Mountain concludes the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup. The tour heads to Mont Gabriel, outside Montreal, for its next stop during its annual visit to North America. The Visa Freestyle International will be held Feb. 1-2 at Utah's Deer Valley Resort.

**truebluefan** · 01-20-2008, 08:51 PM

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (Jan. 20) - Michelle Roark (Winter Park, CO) won the women's World Cup moguls event Sunday at the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup, leading four teammates into the top eight. Rookie Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) picked off his second podium in 48 hours, finishing third in the men's contest at snowy Whiteface Mountain.

For Roark, it's the sixth World Cup win of her career - and came two years to the day since she last won, also at Whiteface. She clicked with a back-flip off the top jump and a "bronco" - a full spin in which she kicks her skis sideways in the moment as she's looking back up the moguls run.

The run was worth 24.20 points after she had qualified fifth. Russian Ekaterina Stolyarova finished second with 24.13.

Back-flip up top, bronco on the bottom jump (again)
"I do the bronco on the bottom because the back-flip is a more difficult trick for me and the top 'air' [jump] is usually more challenging. So, I'm proud of myself for staying with it and sticking that back-flip up there," Roark said.

"We got a little bit of snow, but I really didn't notice it. The light got a little flat, too, but I was just so focused on getting down there and doing my run."

U.S. women filled four straight places, beginning with Shelly Robertson (Reno, NV) in fifth. The others: Kayla Snyderman (Winchester, MA), sixth Sunday after collecting her first podium Friday when she was third; Hannah Kearney (Norwich, VT), 2005 moguls world champion who is returning from knee surgery and was seventh; and two-time Olympian Jillian Vogtli (Ellicotville, NY), who was eighth.

Emiko Torito, who won Friday's moguls event, led qualifying but had trouble on her final run and finished 15th.

In the men's contest, Olympic champion and defending World Cup moguls champ Dale Begg-Smith won with 26.37 with Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada second at 25.57. Pat Deneen (Cle Elum, WA) earned World Cup starts a month ago during the U.S. Freestyle Selections, then came to Lake Placid and finished third in two contests.

Deneen: "I'm on a roll"
"Things are working for me. I'm on a roll and this course suited my skiing really well," he said. Winning a NorAm moguls contest at Val St. come, Que., last weekend gave him a big confidence boost, he said, and he approached each event this weekend the same way: Do what I can do.

He did a back-flip off the top jump, too, and a D-spin (off-axis, double-rotation) for his second jump. He also got a boost with his father flying in to watch him compete each day. "Seeing him cheering him felt really good," Deneen said.

Deneen led three teammates into the top 10. Bryon Wilson (Butte, MT) finished sixth with Jay Bowman-Kirigin (Salt Lake City) seventh and Sho Kashima (Zephyr Cove, NV) in 10th place. Michael Morse (Duxbury, MA) was 15th, giving the U.S. Ski Team six of the 16 finalists for women, five of the men's final 16 skiers.

The U.S. freestylers will stay in Lake Placid to train for a couple of days before heading to Mont Gabriel, outside Montreal, for the next World Cup stop with moguls Saturday and aerials next Sunday. The tour returns to the United States the following week for the Visa Freestyle International Feb. 1-2 at Deer Valley Resort in Utah.