Park City's Roberts wins dual moguls title

PARK CITY — Nate Roberts did what needed to be done to, as he said, get the "W." It wasn't perfect, he admitted, but bottom line, "I won."

Roberts, a Park City native and member of the U.S. Freestyle Team, won the dual moguls title in the 2005 U.S. Freestyle Championships and, for the record, the last race of the 2004-2005 season.

Roberts also won the mogul event on Thursday and the World title in Finland a week ago.

On Saturday, he beat U.S. teammate and challenger Travis Cabral of South Lake Tahoe on the final run. Cabral hit the snow off a jump with hands and body and, as far as judges were concerned, was out of the running.

In the women's event, Shelly Robertson of Reno, Nev., beat Michelle Roark of Denver.

The event was scheduled for Bogus Basin in Idaho, but lean snow conditions made it necessary to move the three-day event to Park City for the moguls and the Utah Olympic Park for aerials.

Conditions Saturday were much improved over those Thursday for the singles moguls.

Heavy snows on Thursday turned to blue skies and bright sunshine for what Don St. Pierre, head mogul coach for the U.S. team, said made for "challenging conditions."

"Where snow was quite light during practice, it's packed in and turned a little slick and greasy for the finals today," he said.

"But I didn't see (the competitors) slow down. In fact, in a race like this, they throw caution to the wind."

And, indeed, they did. There were a number of spectacular crashes, none serious, in the final bracket.

More than 100 racers showed up on the course early Saturday to qualify. The top 16 men and top 16 women then met for a one-run elimination.

After eliminating three challengers in the early bracket, Roberts and Cabral met for the last run. Roberts said after he saw Cabral go down, he slowed down. But he continued to ski a solid run down the field of bumps, accented by two jumps.

Jim Discoe of Telluride, Colo., won the race for third, beating David Digravio of Sugarloaf, Maine.

Jillian Vogtli of Park City won the women's bronze, beating Heather McPhie of Bozeman, Mont.

Roberts said his goal was to win this race and secure a spot in the 2006 Olympics in Italy.

Earlier this month he skied in a test event at the Olympic site.