Freestyle: Kearney wins in Maribel

American Hannah Kearney kicked off the moguls season with a World Cup win Thursday in the dual moguls competition at Meribel, France. The win ended the 2005 moguls World Champion’s three-years drought and was her first win in a dual moguls World Cup.
American Hannah Kearney kicked off the moguls season with a World Cup win Thursday in the dual moguls competition at Meribel, France. The win ended the 2005 moguls World Champion’s three-years drought and was her first win in a dual moguls World Cup.

“She did a great job. She worked her butt off this year and it’s great to see her come off the first big event of the year and do what she did today,” Moguls Head Coach Scott Rawles says on usskiteam.com.

Kearney’s last two seasons have been plagued by injury but she has trained hard to get back on top in 2009.

“I’m in better shape than I’ve been in many seasons thanks to Alex our trainer. He wrote a really good program for us. It really paid off,” Kearney says. “I’m also thankful for all my sponsors because it’s been a rough two years and they stuck with me. And I owe Wes Preston who donated a lot of his time helping me at the water ramps and on the trampoline. I would not have been able to have the jumps I did without him.”

Teammate and reigning U.S. champion Emiko Torito finished fourth.

“It felt really good. I had an excellent qualifying run and I made some mistakes in the duals, but overall I would say it was a solid competition,” Torito says.

On the men’s side Pat Deneen finished sixth to lead the U.S. team. The result is his career-best finish in a dual moguls World Cup event.

“He skied really well all week and he had speed. It was a great way to start his season off and I think he’s setting himself up to be in the hunt for the whole year, too,” Rawles says.

The next moguls competition is over a month away in Mont Gabriel, BC, Jan. 24, 2009 before the Visa Freestyle International at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, UT, Jan. 29-31.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 FREESTYLE FIS WORLD CUP
Meribel, France – Dec. 18, 2008

Men’s dual moguls
1. Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau, Canada
2. Alexandre Bilodeau, Canada
3. Anthony Benna, France
4. Alexandr Smyshlyaev, Russia
5. Andrey Volkov, Russia
–
6. Pat Deneen, Cle Elum, WA
14. Nate Roberts, Park City, UT
16. Michael Morse, Duxbury, MA
22. Bryon Wilson, Butte, MT
35. Landon Gardner, Missoula, MT
37. David Babic, Washington, VT

Women’s dual moguls
1. Hannah Kearney, Norwich, VT
2. Jennifer Heil, Canada
3. Nikola Sudova, Czech Republic
4. Emiko Torito, Denver
5. Margarita Marbler, Austria
–
11. Michelle Roark, Denver
14. Kayla Snyderman, Winchester, MA
17. Shelly Robertson, Reno, NV
26. Shannon Bahrke, Tahoe City, CA

Quotes from usskiteam.com