Steamboat Springs — Jaelin Kauf and Olivia Giaccio both earned their way onto the U.S. Ski Team with spectacular performances last year on the freestyle skiing moguls World Cup circuit.

Both skiers with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, neither found quite the same results this season. Kauf’s best finish was 11th, and that was in the season’s first event, in December in Finland. Giaccio was 14th in the same event, but neither has made the 16-skier finals in a World Cup event since.

All that changed in a big way Saturday. 
Competing on home snow in a dual moguls event at Deer Valley Resort in Utah, Kauf flew to her first World Cup podium finish of the season and the second of her career. She was third after beating Giaccio, who went on to finish fourth, in the consolation finals.

It was a strong day for the U.S. women. Keaton McCargo was sixth Saturday, KC Oakley 10th, Tess Johnson 13th, Hannah Soar 15th and Nessa Dziemian 16th.

Morgan Schild, meanwhile, won Thursday’s individual moguls event. Dziemian was fifth, Matthews eighth, Johnson ninth, McCargo 15th, Giaccio 18th, Soar 19th, Kauf 20th and Oakley 23rd.

On the men’s side, Steamboat skier Ryan Dyer was second among the U.S. men in Thursday’s event, placing 14th. Canada’s Mikael Kingsbury won, while the U.S.’s Troy Murphy was fifth, Troy Tully 15th, Thomas Rowley 16th, Bradley Wilson 22nd, Emerson Smith 27th, Dylan Walczyk 34th and Abe Studler 43rd.

Walczyk was fifth to lead the way for U.S. skiers Saturday, as Kingsbury won again. Dyer finished 36th.

The U.S. skiers will be in Steamboat this spring for the third consecutive year competing in the U.S. Freestyle Skiing National Championships.

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9