Five U.S. Men, Five U.S. Women Into Moguls Finals

MONT TREMBLANT, Que., Jan. 10, 2004 – Canadians Marc-Andre Moreau and Stephanie St. Pierre won World Cup moguls events Saturday at Mont Tremblant while U.S. skiers landed two podiums in near-zero cold. Luke Westerlund was second in the men’s event while defending World Cup champ Shannon Bahrke was third in the women’s contest as 10 U.S. men and women made finals.

“I just didn’t think about the cold,” Westerlund said. “You could take three runs but then you had to go in to get warm.”

“It was -32 Celsius when we got up and it didn’t seem to get much warmer during the day,” Bahrke said.

Moreau won the men’s event with 25.14 points to 24.92 for Westerlund, who led three Americans into the top five. Toby Dawson was third with defending world Cup men’s champion Travis Cabral fifth. Ryan Riley finished 10th with Jeremy Bloom 12th.

In the women’s contest, St. Pierre edged teamate Jennifer Heil, 24.25-24.22. Bahrke came in at 23.75 with Hannah Teter fourth (23.47). Michelle Roark was sixth, Emiko Torito eighth and Jillian Vogtli 12th.

“It was brutal weather,” Head Coach Jeff Wintersteen said. “Overall, it was a good day for us but you just had to try to get through it.”

Westerlund was looking to forget about his frustrating results in Europe before Christmas. “I did a Hucklebuck up-top and it was a shot to the bottom,” he said, explaining that he landed on the next mogul at the top and took off before slowing to throw a Cossack, heli-cross off the bottom jump.

“I was pretty much out of control on the bottom. I slowed down just before the bottom air but still was going faster than I expected,” he said. “I was happy just to land and ski to the end.”

Bahrke said she was coming back from two days of rough training and had to give herself a talking-to Friday night to bring about an attitude adjustment. “It was rough training and it’s been so cold my body just doesn’t like it,” she laughed. “I came out today with a different mindset, though. Friday I was just about to cry. But I had a good training, did my backflip-cross up-top – it was pretty good – but it was too cold to do my D-spin, so I did a heli off the bottom.”

Wintersteen added, “I thought Cabral skied very well nad Toby had an excellent run – obviously, both in the top five. It was a tough day but these guys hung tough and did a terrific job.”

The World Cup weekend concludes Sunday with aerials before everyone heads to the Nature Valley Freestyle Cup Jan. 16-18 in Lake Placid, N.Y.