Stratton Mountain, VT – World Cup Rookie of the Year K.C. Oakley won her second medal of the weekend with a top dual moguls finish at the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships after five solid runs at Stratton Mountain in Vermont on Saturday. Cody Tempel took everyone by surprise when he defeated Friday’s champion Jeremy Cota to take the breakthrough win in the men’s contest.

Oakley, who hails from Piedmont, Calif. but skis with Park City Freestyle, expressed her preference for duals. “I like duals a lot more than I like singles, I think it’s more exciting to compete in and way more exciting to watch,” she said. “I was saying earlier to my coaches that I’m usually a better duals skier and I hadn’t had a good duals season at all. I was pretty jetlaged so it means a lot that I could pull it together and be duals national champ.”

She added that she changed little to result in her breakthrough performance this season. “There wasn’t a lot that I did differently in my skiing this year from last year. Both were pretty successful years for me. I just took the momentum from last year and tried to transition it to this year. Really the only difference for me was that I was going against much harder competition.”

Joining Oakley on the women’s podium were silver medalist Eliza Outtrim, of Hamden, Conn. — last year’s champion — and Telluride, Colo.’s Keaton McCargo with bronze, her first medal ever.

Missoula Freestyle’s Cody Tempel earned an upset win gold medal for the men and his first ever win.

“It’s been a decade of effort a lot of work and a lot of preparation, Tempel said. Today was just a really magical day and it’s really nice to have everything just go my way and fall into place for me. I couldn’t be more happy.”

He was followed by a silver medal for single mogul’s men’s champion Jeremy Cota, of Carrabassett Valley, Maine, with Sun Valley, Idaho’s Shane Cordeau rounding out the podium in third.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
U.S. Freestyle Championships
Stratton Mountain, VT – Mar. 24, 2012
Dual Moguls

Women:

Men: