SSCV mogul skier takes silver medal at U.S. national championships

A feeling of déjà vu swept over Riley Hughes as his skis caught a rut going off the bottom air jump at the U.S. mogul championships last month. Flashbacks of tearing his MCL in a similar fashion on the final aerial maneuver at last year’s nationals in Waterville Valley rushed back.

“I was sitting up in the air just like, ‘just stay calm, just stay calm, land it,'” the 17-year-old said. “And it worked really well.”

No kidding. Hughes finished second in the individual moguls event at Palisades Tahoe Resort on March 29, leading a trio of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes into the top four at the last major event of the winter.

“It felt surreal,” Hughes said of his national championships silver. “It’s something I’ve dreamed about for years.”

U.S. Ski Team athlete Dylan Marcellini took both the moguls and dual moguls titles, winning the former with a score of 86.20. Hughes (80.14) finished just in front of teammates Jiah Cohen (78.95) and Jameson Kust (77.01), capturing the junior crown in the process. A nationals podium was in the back of Hughes’ mind after he placed fourth in duals — his better discipline — at the Stratton Mountain NorAm on March 2, but the main goal was to simply make the super final. After landing his cork 10 top air, Hughes switched his mindset to maximizing speed points through the middle section. 

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“Coming into bottom air, I’d been struggling with going large enough in training, so I was focusing on not slowing down going into it,” he continued. While his skis swerved slightly through the deep tracks off the final jump, Hughes kept his composure.

“I managed to make it look intentional but it threw my axis a little bit different than I’d planned,” he described. “I just had to focus on staying calm through the trick.” 

SSCV mogul program director Freddy Mooney said Hughes, the son of the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Chris Hughes, has “had a breakout season.”

“He put himself into the prequalified group with stellar NorAm Cup performances, and he followed that up with a large statement at nationals that he’s for real,” Mooney stated. “Riley’s work ethic has been amazing, and he’s just beginning to reap the rewards of years of dedication.”

Marcellini also won the NorAm Cup standings. SSCV skiers Porter Huff, Cohen, Hughes and Kust finished third, 16th, 23rd and 28th, respectively. Hughes was also ninth in the dual moguls and 15th in the combined moguls/dual moguls standings. The former Team Summit athlete, who has been at SSCV for the last four years, came into his first full NorAm season hoping to “learn from what the best guys do and implement that into my own comp style.” Sidelined from spring skiing last off-season, Hughes hit the weight room harder than normal after his injury, boosting his squat by 35% in six weeks.

“Overall, I’m super happy with it,” Hughes said of his campaign, which included four top-16 finishes. “That was pretty special.”

The silver has raised his expectations for 2025-26.

“It’s definitely opened my eyes up to the fact that I could get World Cup starts next year,” he said, noting that domestic World Cup starts depend on results from nationals and U.S. Selections next December.

On the women’s side, SSCV ruled the roost in Olympic Valley, too.

Abby McLarnon topped the junior field and was third overall in both duals and singles. World Cup star Alli Macuga and Kylie Kariotis went 1-2 in the duals event and flipped positions in the singles. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Ava Keenan placed seventh in the duals competition, capping off a successful season that was highlighted by two top-5 finishes at the Deer Valley NorAm stop. Keenan and Cohen both stood on the junior duals podium in Palisade.

“As a staff, we are incredibly proud of this team,” Mooney said regarding the 17 skiers who competed. “With our two top athletes, historically, going down this season, it’s been impressive to see the rest of the team step right in and carry the torch.”

Reese Chapdelaine — who won a gold and silver at the FIS Junior World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan in January — and Nash Lucas, both suffered injuries at the Deer Valley NorAm, Mooney said. Huff, a Youth Olympic Games gold medalist in his own right, took a training crash prior to the Palisade event.

“It was a pretty valiant effort to even compete, let alone put himself into the mix,” Mooney said. “It is a pretty large illustration of the strength and depth of this team to have multiple podium threats, at every level of competition, even when some of the big hitters go down.”

SSCV played a huge part in the U.S. claiming the Marc Hodler Trophy — given to the nation with the best cumulative results across all FIS Junior World Championship freestyle events — for the eighth time since 2014. In addition to Chapdelaine’s medals, Huff and McLarnon claimed fourth-places in the individual event and McLarnon tacked on a bronze in the duals. Hughes said his teammates are a big reason for his progression.

“It’s super motivating,” he said. “Knowing I get to train with the guys that are the best in the country every day — there’s always a level of comparison to them. … You go out to the competitions and you’re like, ‘this is just who I ski against every day are the guys winning this, so I’m used to it.'”