As the first rider dropped into qualifiers, a dark and ominous cloud rolled in. The riders were actually stoked as the faster snow allowed for some serious snowsliding action. Sergio Berger (SUI) kicked things into high gear with a frontside 9, frontside 7, Cab 7, ending things with an air-to-fakie into an inverted 5. He threw the 1080 on the first hit of his next run, but unfortunately couldn’t quite top run #1. Markus Malin (FIN) was on fire with both runs, throwing a big ol’ method, crippler 7, Haakon Flip, frontside 5, backside 5, and air-to-fakie into a frontside 9. He would change it up on run #2 with a last-hit cab 10. Daniel Friberg (SUI) had a run that included a backside 7, frontside 5, backside 5, frontside 9 to backside 7; while Kodai Wantanabe (JPN) kept things thoroughly consistent with huge backside tails into back-to-back 7s to frontside 9.

When the smoke cleared, Markus Malin sat atop the standings, with Kodai Wantanabe and Sergio Berger rounding things out in second and third respectively. Keep an eye on these three as they go head-to-head with the big dogs during Saturday’s semi-finals.

Results:
1st - Markus Malin (SALOMON)
2nd - Kodai Watanabe (BURTON)
3rd - Daniel Friberg (BURTON)
4th - Sergio Berger (QUIKSILVER)
5th - Justin Lamoureux (BATALEON)
6th - Mitch Allan (OAKLEY)
7th - Mitchell Brown (BATALEON)
8th - Tyler Troy (MOUNTSNOW ACADEMY)
9th - Matt Wallace (BILLABONG)
10th - Peetu Piiroinen (BURTON)

If you can’t make it to Stratton, you can always catch the Slopestyle, Halfpipe and Big Air finals on NBC’s US Open highlights show, airing Sunday March 18th from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm EST.

There will also be free webcasts of the final events on www.burton.com.

WEBCAST SCHEDULE:

Friday, March 16:
Slopestyle Finals 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm EST

Saturday, March 17:
Halfpipe Semifinals 9:00 am - 12:15 pm EST