Ski and Snowboard Club Vail wraps up mogul season with national championship podiums

The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail mogul program finished a memorable winter with a couple more podiums at the U.S. Freestyle Mogul Championships last month in California.

Ava Keenan and Jiah Cohen led the way over two days of competition at Palisades Tahoe. Keenan placed third in the women’s individual event on March 28, and Cohen claimed bronze in men’s duals the following day.

“It was an amazing year for Ski Club Vail — for the mogul program as a whole,” SSCV program director Freddy Mooney said regarding a season that also included an Olympic gold and bronze medal from Liz Lemley and a World Cup win and four podiums from Tess Johnson.

“Obviously, what Liz did is absolutely amazing. Everybody is extremely proud of her and the way she was able to come back from that injury and really just put herself in a position to compete,” Mooney continued before adding, “and the rest of our team did really well. At the divisional level, we had athletes on podiums every weekend and the majority of top-10s were Ski Club Vail at several of the local races.”

For Keenan, finishing ahead of a couple World Cup skiers was a redemptive finish after a slow start to the season. The 15-year-old injured herself training in Chile this October and missed the crucial U.S. Selections event two months later.

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“(That’s) a huge burden to try and overcome if you’re going to try and qualify (for world juniors) using NorAms only,” Mooney said. “Because you’re going against the Americans and the Canadians, which are two of the strongest countries in the world in mogul skiing.”

While seven of her SSCV teammates competed at the FIS Freestyle Junior World Championships in Airolo, Switzerland in late March, Keenan put in an intense training camp at Golden Peak with coach Will Fenely during that week.

“And it showed,” Mooney said of Keenan’s pre-nationals practice gains. “She shined on a really difficult course. The nationals course was really hard this year and she’s a very strong, aggressive skier and a difficult course favors her.”

Keenan became just the second 15-year-old to podium at the national championships after current Olympian and defending overall crystal globe winner Olivia Giaccio accomplished the feat in 2016. She’s also the first Black skier to ever reach the senior national mogul podium.

Kylie Kariotis scored 70.34 in the final to edge Kasey Hogg (70.16) for the win as Keenan racked up a score of 63.13, finishing in front of Dory Michaud and World Cup skier Alli Macuga. Fellow SSCV athletes Abby McLarnon — a world junior silver medalist — Katie Dreitlein, Reese Lemnah and Kayla Broecker placed 17th, 18th, 21st and 25th, respectively. Keenan was also the top club finisher in the dual event, where she placed ninth as Hogg took the win over Evelyn Harris.

Another highlight for the women’s team this year was the emergence of Mahlia Torres. Torres finished seventh in the NorAm dual moguls standings and finished ninth in the individual event at junior worlds.

“She showed up and battled and skied really well there,” Mooney said of the 16-year-old. Fitness was a major factor for her growth this season, the coach noted.

“Because she’s gotten stronger and more athletic, her consistency has come up. She’s always had really high potential,” Mooney explained. “Her ability to produce for an entire season was definitely supported by the work she put in in the gym.”

Unfortunately, Torres suffered a concussion on duals day in Switzerland and wasn’t able to bounce back before nationals.

Mooney said the men’s side was tough in Palisades Tahoe, especially with Olympic sixth-placer Charlie Mickel showing up. Mickel took the individual win, but SSCV made up a quarter of the 16-person final as reigning world junior silver medalist Porter Huff, along with Nash Lucas, Jiah Cohen and Caden McCormick all finished within the top-15.

“That 5-6-7 was awesome,” Mooney said, referring to Huff, Lucas and Cohen, respectively. “Those guys all really skied strongly and it was a really competitive field.”

Cohen qualified well at junior worlds but made a costly mistake in the finals and fell to 16th.

“He was going for the win,” Mooney said of the 19-year-old’s international efforts. “You have to take some risks and that time it didn’t pan out, but as we saw at nationals on duals day, sometimes when you take that risk it does pan out.”

Cohen navigated tricky, inconsistent spring snow — frozen in the morning but slushy and grabby in the afternoon — to defeat Mickel and take the final podium spot.

“Jiah that day was on lock,” Mooney said. “He hit every run and consistently made the other person perform.”

Looking ahead to next year, Mooney believes his core group of high-level men will be targeting domestic World Cup starts and trying “to establish themselves at that next level.” Keenan is also well-positioned going into the 2026-27 campaign. Since next year’s NorAm and potential domestic World Cup starts take into account both this spring nationals and next winter’s U.S. Selections, she’ll sort of be playing with house money in December.

“She gets to really go for broke (at U.S. Selections) since she pretty much has a NorAm spot locked up,” Mooney said.

“Our program is incredibly strong and incredibly stacked,” Mooney added. “And the future is really bright for that group of young skiers.”