CALGARY, AB (Jan. 10) - The U.S. Freestyle Ski Team battled weather Sunday as it wrapped up three days of competition in Calgary Sunday with Emily Cook (Belmont, VT) finishing sixth and Dylan Ferguson (Amesbury, MA) seventh in World Cup aerials.

Chinese athletes Zongyang Jia and Nina Li won the event in what U.S. Freestyle Ski Team Aerials Coach Matt Christiansen said was changing weather, poor snow conditions and some of the lowest scores he has ever seen. Bright spots were few, but the performance of 15-year-old Ashley Caldwell (Lake Placid, NY) in her first World Cup brightened things on a difficult weather day.

"There was a weather change. No one was hitting good takeoffs, the snow turned into sugar. Iand it wasn't that hard packed snow we were aiming for," Christiansen said. "The whole women's and men's events were not good just really bad. Not just from performance, but iIt was the lowest scoring semi-finals I have ever seen in my 12 years on the World Cup."

In the men's competition Ferguson was followed for U.S. results by Jeret "Speedy" Peterson (Boise, ID). According to Christiansen the two had the same trick on the first run and were in contention, but mother nature had different plans.

"Dylan did a really nice full- double full- full and he was sitting in sixth after the first jump. Speedy also did a full- double full- full and he was in second place," Christiansen said. "But in finals the conditions changed and were really slow. Dylan had to really work that last trick to end up seventh. Speedy went for the Hhurricane and got caught up in the sludge on the jump and ended up just doing a triple twisting triple."

In the end, though Christiansen was pleased with Ferguson's performance doing two high degree of difficulty tricks in World Cup for the first time.

World Champion Ryan St. Onge (Winter Park, CO) also struggled with the slow snow, slapping back onto the hill and failing to qualify for finals.

"Ryan missed his takeoff in the first jump and fell down the hill. He just went too flat, landed down the hill and slapped back," Christiansen said.

The story was the same for the women who struggled with conditions.

"Emily [Cook; Belmont, MA] had a great first jump, but on the second jump she got caught in the sludgy snow and her jump wasn't a very nice jump," Christiansen said. "Ashley [Calldwell]; Lake Placid, NY] just slapped back on her second jump."

"Actually, what Ashley did as a 15-year-old today was quite amazing," said Christensen. "This was her first World Cup and to make finals without even doing the higher-DD tricks she's capable of is quite a credit to her."

Caldwell is the first skier to come out of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's Elite Air Program designed to take gymnastically-talented athletes and teach them how to become aerialists. Caldwell came out of the Lake Placid-based program ahead of schedule, after only two years working with Coach Dmitriy Kavunov.

For Christiansen, the event in Calgary was a huge learning experience that he hopes the team will grow from.

"We're just going to regroup when we get home and learn that when we get up to Cypress there's going to be similar conditions," Christiansen said. "No one is being as aggressive as they should be and going for the wins, and that's what we need to do."

The Team will be in front of the hometown crowd with a long track record of success. Up next for the team is the Visa Freestyle International at Deer Valley Resort Jan. 14-16 with night finals Friday Jan. 15 and a two-year win streak from Peterson and St. Onge.where he hopes the team will be able to find success again.

"We're looking forward to Deer Valley. It's a great site and we've won that on the men's side more than any other team, so that gives us a little confidence going into the next two U.S. events," Christiansen said.

Olympic spots were wrapped up in December's Olympic Trials in Steamboat Springs, CO by Peterson and Lacy Schnoor (Draper, UT). But the rest of the team is wide open.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 FIS Freestyle World Cup
Calgary, AB - Jan. 10, 2010
Aerials

Men
1. Zongyang Jia, China, 253.40
2. Anton Kushnir, Belarus, 244.60
3. Alexei Grishin, Belarus, 230.73
4. Timofei Slivets, Belarus, 224.17
5. Stanislav Kravchuk, Ukrane, 213.22
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7. Dylan Ferguson, Amesbury, MA, 206.27
12. Jeret Peterson, Boise, ID, 124.34
25. Ryan St. Onge, Winter Park, CO, 85.18
28. Scotty Bahrke, Tahoe City, CA, 78.73

Women
1. Nina Li, China, 195.63
2. Evelyne Leu, Switzerland, 178.99
3. Xinxin Guo, China, 167.73
4. Xin Zhang, China, 165.14
5. Lydia Lassila, Australia, 164.81
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6. Emily Cook, Belmont, MA, 157.91
11. Ashley Caldwell, Lake Placid, NY, 133.86
16. Jana Lindsey, Black Hawk, SD, 63.80
18. Lacy Schnoor, Sandy, UT, 57.10
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