Stratton Mountain, VT – Defending U.S. national aerials skiing champion Dylan Ferguson won gold and retained his title at the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships held at Stratton Mountain in Vermont on Sunday. With difficult course conditions, the door was open for FLY Freestyle’s Maddy Olsen to take her first title.

Organizers at Stratton Mountain did an amazing job producing an excellent U.S. Championships despite warm temperatures to wrap up the 2011-12 freestyle season with a 40% increase in participation over last year’s event. Stratton Mountain crews put in over 300 hours of snow cat time preparing the aerials hill. It was a  unique aerials hill with scaffolding used to produce extra speed.

Olsen, of Park City, Utah, earned a spot on the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team with her first career title.

“It’s a really exciting win for me, especially since this is my first nationals,” Olsen said. “Even though the weather conditions weren’t the best we all went out there and did our best and had a good time with it. It worked out in my favor today. To be the aerials national champion is huge!”

Finishing behind Olsen were Elite Aerial Development Program (EADP) athlete Kiley McKinnon, of Madison, Conn., and FLY Freestyle’s Madie Gorelik, also of Park City, with silver and bronze, respectively.

“It feels good to maintain my title and it feels even better to cap off my great season with another good result,” said Ferguson, of Amesbury, Mass, after winning the men’s event. “I felt great this morning. I was excited to watch our development kids compete in their first nationals and to see some sweet jumps from them. With the difficult conditions we were dealing with, everyone was competing on a level field which helped some of our development kids get on the podium. It was cool to see.”

At the age of 23, Ferguson was the oldest athlete on Sunday’s podium. Mike Rossi, of Long Valley, N.J., claimed silver, followed by Mac Bohonnon, of New Haven, Conn., with the bronze.

“Amazing effort from Stratton and good attitudes from the athletes turned a questionable day into a very successful event with high quality jumps,” concluded USSA Freestyle Director Todd Schirman. “The Junior Worlds Athletes arrived to the U.S. on Friday, put jet lag behind them and performed like veterans.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
U.S. Freestyle Championships
Stratton Mountain, VT – Mar. 25, 2012
Aerials

Women:

Men: