SNOWBASIN -- The stage is set for some of the world's best pipe skiers and snowboarders, as the Winter Dew Tour superpipe competitions wrap up today with seasoned veterans in position to snag the cup.
Mason Aguirre won the men's snowboard pipe semifinals Friday evening at the Toyota Championships and will join the other top-10 finishers in challenging the two Dew Tour overall season leaders -- Iouri Podladtchikov and defending Dew Cup champion Louie Vito -- in today's Final.
In the men's freeski competition, David Wise set the bar high with his first-run score of 95.00. The next closest finishers were Thomas Krief with an 89.00 and Gus Kenworthy with an 88.00. The top 10 advance to today's Final, where they will meet up with the top two overall, defending Dew Cup champion Kevin Rolland and 16-year-old Torin Yater-Wallace, who is seeking his first Dew Cup.
In the women's competitions, Gretchen Bleiler came back on her second run to take the win from China's Xuetong Cai in the women's snowboard superpipe semifinals. She leads the top five, who advance to Saturday's final against season leader Kelly Clark
* CHEEVER FAILS IN BID TO REPEAT AS U.S. SNOWBOARDCROSS CHAMPION: At Park City, defending U.S. snowboardcross champion Jonathan Cheever joked that he was retiring after this race -- from his moonlighting job as a plumber.
Instead, after failing Friday to qualify for the finals of the U.S. Grand Prix, Cheever likely will have to keep looking for those side jobs around Park City.
"It's tough to be surprised because I know I wasn't riding well," Cheever said afterward. "To be a top athlete and not perform is disappointing, especially at your home mountain."
Teammate Graham Watanabe, who actually is retiring after this race, finds himself entering Sunday's finals as the top American racer.
The 29-year-old Watanabe turned in the third-fastest time Friday on the course at Park City's Canyons Resort, behind Australia's Alex Pullin and Austria's Markus Schairer.
The top 32 advanced and Cheever, who has had four top-10 World Cup finishes this season, could manage only 34th.
Taking second overall in the Grand Prix and winning the U.S. title jumpstarted Cheever's season a year ago, as he went on to win World Cup silver twice and finish No. 3 overall in the world.
Now he'll look for the boost in Quebec in two weeks, followed by a trip to Sochi, Russia, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Other top Americans who qualified include Nate Holland, Nick Baumgartner and Jayson Hale, who is racing despite a dislocated right shoulder suffered three days after he won Winter X bronze in late January.
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