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Switch 1800
In a day that saw both freeski finals at the U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., the only thing more perfect than the weather was the meticulously groomed pipe and slopestyle course. David Wise and Brita Sigourney conquered the pipe, as Tom Wallisch and Kaya Turski took first in slope.
With an early start, the women's pipe finals got underway at 9:30 a.m. to sunny skies and temps in the low 40s with Sigourney consistently going bigger and smoother than the rest of the field. "We couldn't have asked for a better day," said Sigourney, a California native who recently relocated to Park City, Utah. "I'm a Cali girl and this is what I live for."
It was a combination of a 900, 720 and a large alley-oop Japan 540 that locked down Sigourney's winning score of 90.8, edging out second place finisher Roz Groenewoud by over three points. Sigourney earned the Grand Prix crown for the year as well. Maddie Bowman took third.
In the men's pipe finals, Reno local David Wise topped the field by dropping in to a switch double cork 1080 followed by a couple of 9s, a flat spin 540 before capping it off with a massive double cork 1260. "It felt great to land on my feet," said Wise, who fell on his first run. "I'm definitely hyped."
Noah Bowman's lofty style and switch 900 earned him second, with Frenchy Benoit Valentin taking third by going huge with a 1260 tail grab to finish off his run.
During the afternoon's slopestyle finals, Mammoth resident Kaya Turski set fire to the course with a switch 5, to reg 5, to a gigantically smooth switch 720 mute. "I just tried to stay calm, hang with my coaches and visualize my runs," said Turski of her winning run.
Coming in second was Devin Logan with her easy style and a mighty flat spin 540 on the bottom kicker. Emilia Wint finished third.
Finishing off the heavy final day was the men's slopestyle, where the dominating ways of Tom Wallisch inevitably beat the other 11 riders in the finals by a long shot with a score of 96.4. After breaking off the upper rail section with tech tricks the other riders weren't even trying, Wallisch managed to line up a switch right side 900, to double cork 1260, before stomping a pair of double corked rodeo 1080s.
"Hopefully we all can build off this successful event as we move toward the Olympics in a couple of years," said Wallisch.
Canadian Alex Bellemare took second with a huge double rodeo flat spin 900 Japan in between a solid run of neck tweaking spins. Joss Christensen took third.
Though the most amazing feat of the afternoon may have went to youngster Torin Yater-Wallace, who landed the first-ever switch 1800 in competition off the bottom jump, blowing the minds of spectators and judges, who needed a minute to break out their calculators and make sure they were correct in calling it. Yater-Wallace finished fourth in slopestyle and fifth in superpipe.