Duxbury’s Michael Morse laid down a spectacular run to win a gold medal in the moguls competition of the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships at Deer Valley Resort in Park City on Saturday of the last weekend in March.

Duxbury’s Michael Morse laid down a spectacular run to win a gold medal in the moguls competition of the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships at Deer Valley Resort in Park City on Saturday of the last weekend in March.

“We had a great day. Everybody put together some really good stuff,” said moguls Head Coach Scott Rawles. “We have a competitive group and they came out and skied hard. It was awesome.”{sidebar id=4}

Morse, who landed a back flip with an iron cross and a D-spin while listening to some tunes in his helmet, couldn’t believe he won a national title.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but it’s pretty amazing [to win the title]. I had a tough year and it feels good to lay down a run,” Morse said. “I was pretty amped to go. The moguls were a little bit firmer than they were in the morning, but I just tried to keep it together and let it run through the bottom.”{sidebar id=1}

“He’s really had to battle through some injuries the last couple of years,” said Rawles. “He did a really good job of managing that this year. It was funny because we were all sitting around last night picking our dark horse and everyone picked Mike. It was great to see him put it together in a big event and lay down some great stuff.”

Nate Roberts of Park City, UT (24.69) followed Morse (24.76) with the silver and David Babic of Washington, VT (24.68) grabbed the bronze.

The following day Morse was at it again, adjusting to difficult conditions from the previous night’s storm, while capturing his second gold medal of the weekend by winning the head-to-head dual moguls championships

Morse, the dark horse contender coming into the weekend, flew down the course on Champion trail to Metallica playing in his helmet. He was particularly excited, since he had to stop skiing midway through the 2007 season because of recurring back pain. That came following the 2006 season when the Duxbury native, who made his first World Cup trip to Europe leading up to the Olympics, suffered a knee injury that ended his season.

“I was a little tired after yesterday and wasn’t sure how everything was going to go,” said Morse. “It hasn’t hit me yet [that I won], but it feels great to lay down some runs and do well in this competition. It’s always nice to go out with a win and ski well.”

Mike is the son of Dick and Sheila Morse of Washington Street.{sidebar id=6}