DEER VALLEY -- Keep an eye on this kid.
He is Travis Cabral. He is 15 and a sophomore at South Tahoe High School in Lake Tahoe, Calif. Nice kid. And after tearing up a field of older, more accomplished skiers in Saturday's 1999 Chevy Truck U.S. Freestyle Championships, Cabral is -- for the moment -- the national individual men's moguls champ."This was by far the best run of my life. It was definitely my highest score ever," Cabral said after the blistering finals run, the fastest of the day.
"I'm going to be in Salt Lake in 2002."
In a sport where athlete scores can differ by only tenths of points, Cabral recorded a 28.10 and was well above second-place finisher Caleb Martin, of Telluride, Colo., with 26.78.
Crowd favorite Ann Battelle, 31, of Steamboat Springs, Colo., won the women's individual moguls race with 25.92, just ahead of USSA teammate Michelle Roark of Westminster, Colo., with 25.61.
Moguls were given full medal status in the Olympic family of winter events in 1992. In the event, athletes piston their way down a 250-meter moguls course that is interrupted by two jumps.
The skiers perform tricks with names like "twister," "cossack," "daffy" or "spread" short for "spread eagle" on the jumps. Women typically combine two of these tricks while men link three or four.
Cabral, for example, hit a "triple twister" on the top jump and a "double spread" on the bottom.
Grabbing cheers and applause for a high-flying cossack on her first jump and a "double daffy" on bottom, Battelle still thought Roark had beat her when she crossed the finish line.
Still battling jetlag from the recent World Championships in Switzerland, Battelle said the weeks leading up to this weekend's season finish have been indescribable.
She won a World Cup race in Japan, a World Cup moguls title a few days later, another World Championship in Switzerland and the national championship on Saturday.
"This has been an amazing last few weeks," said Battelle, who was also USOC's Athlete of the Month in February. Now she's taking a vacation -- to Mexico, she hopes -- before starting spring training.
The ebullient Roark, who was ill most of the week, screamed down the hill with her curly ponytail flying. The second-place finish Saturday soothed a disappointing performance last week in Switzerland, where Roark lost her ski and bombed out of the competition.
"I can definitely work on my airs," she said. "I know I can do better. I want to be better next year."
Emiko Torito, of Englewood, Colo., was third with 23.90.
But Cabral's win was the story of the day.
In 1992, he watched skiers "blasting through the moguls" during television coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics in France. Then age 6, Cabral decided to become a freestyle skier and since then, Cabral has been surrounded by Lake Tahoe's strong freestyle tradition.
Watch out Jonny Moseley.
Sure, Caleb told reporters afterward. He's beaten Moseley, 23, before . . . "when he crashed and stuff."
Moguls golden boy and Olympian Moseley, of Tiburon, Calif., has missed two domestic World Cup events this season because of a back injury. On Saturday, he performed his famous "360 Mute Grab Jump" but earned a fourth place overall.
The crowd seemed to be watching Cabral after he recorded the best qualifying performance earlier in the day.
The event turned out to be a strong showing for the Far West regional ski team, made up of 75 competitive skiers in and around Lake Tahoe.
"Travis ripped. He laid is down," said Tony Basile, 19, another Far West regional team skier who placed third in Saturday's competition with 26.72.
Moseley, who trains at Squaw Valley and Heavenly Valley resorts near Tahoe, provides inspiration for younger skiers, said Raymond DeVre, director of freestyle skiing for Squaw Valley.
"But we were not expecting this yet," said Greg Harrington, another a moguls coach who works with Cabral and Basile. "We certainly didn't think we'd be winning."
Last year at this time, Basile, who lives in Olympic Valley, Calif. and attends school in Idaho, injured his anterior cruciate ligament and hasn't competed all year. He tried to come back early this year, but stress fractures sidelined him again.
Saturday was Basile's 26th day back on the snow.
The freestyle championship continues Sunday with the dual moguls competition at Deer Valley and the aerials on Monday at the Utah Winter Sports Park.