Hannah Kearney holds off strong challenge in FIS Freestyle World Cup

PARK CITY — Undefeated in 12 consecutive mogals competitions, Hannah Kearney experienced something new for her this season — second best.

And then, less than 30 minutes later, she sliced and slashed the Champion run at Deer Valley in the FIS World Cup with the speed and perfection that has come to define her skiing since she lost at World Championships on this same course last year by four 100ths of a point.

Kearney, the reigning Olympic champion, has been so dominant this season that she has not trailed after any single run — not qualifying, not final, and, as she's won every competition, never after Super Final.

But Thursday night, she found herself trailing her U.S. teammate Heather McPhie heading into the Super Final.

"She beat me in that … run," said Kearney after she edge McPhie for her 13th consecutive win with a score of 25.21. McPhie was second with a score of 24.77. "So the pressure was on. And the strange format change made it so she had to come down first. So I had the advantage of hearing her score, even though she'd beat me in that final run."

McPhie earned points with the judges, as well as the crowd, as she is the only woman who competes with the D-spin, a thrilling off-axis jump on the bottom air.

"I'm just having so much fun, just pushing the sport, just doing that D-spin every single run, and getting experience all the time and knocking on the door to beat Hannah one of these days soon," McPhie said. "I think I did push her. It's the first time she hasn't been in first for any single run so I'm stoked. Especially because I haven't competed the D-spin that much, and I'm just really starting to learn and with every single run I'm getting better. I'm really stoked with my progress this season."

U.S. Freestyle coach Todd Schirman was thrilled with his team's effort Thursday night.

"It's absolutely amazing having three out of the four women in the Super Finals," he said. "It's really amazing to see all of our women stepping up on (degree of difficulty). Three out of the four girls doing two inverts, doing D-spins, doing back-fulls, it's really nice to see our women pushing the sport, and having the results to show for it."

Having McPhie being the one pushing Kearney was a bonus.