NEWRY — Despite all the twists, turns and aerial acrobatics, the final results of Saturday’s Dumont Cup was a simple flip in the standings.

Last year’s winner Gus Kenworthy and runner-up Nick Goepper flipped positions on the podium during the fifth annual event at Sunday River.

Goepper took the top spot for the second time in three years. Kenworthy finished second. Josh Christensen took third for the second year in a row.

“We’ve been switching off,” said Kenworthy, a Colorado native. “Next year will be my chance again. We’ve been on the podium together the last three years.”

Goepper, an Indiana native, won the day with a final score of 95, giving him two of the best scores of the afternoon. He posted a 93 in his first of three runs. His winnings were $10,000. Kenworthy took home $5,000 and Christensen won $2,000.

“It’s awesome to win,” said Goepper, who was fourth in 2010 and has been in the top two every year since. “It’s more of a mellow and relaxed vibe than all the other ones. It’s springtime. It’s usually pretty sunny. You have soft, slushy snow. The New England crowd comes out. So that makes it a little more mellow than some of the bigger contests, but it’s still a platinum event. It still carries a lot of weight. It’s still great to have these grassroots events on the East Coast.”

Goepper is coming off a strong rookie season in 2012. He won a silver in the Winter X Games and won a slopestyle event on the Winter Dew Tour in Utah. He was an amateur when he won the event in 2011.

Kenworthy has had a multitude of podium finishes and was one of only two skiers to compete in three divisions in the Winter X Games in 2012, reaching the finals in two of them. He won the North Face Open in Canada in a superpipe event last year. His other pro wins include a pair of wins in the New Zealand Winter Games in 2011, both the slopestyle and superpipe.

After semifinals in the morning, the field was narrowed for the afternoon’s finals. Goepper upped the ante right away with a 92 on his first run.

“I was looking for something I could land for sure and get all my grabs,” said Goepper. “Then I left room to step it up.”

Kenworthy was a close second after the first run. He had posted a 92 while Christensen had a 91.

“The second run I tried to step it up by adding a right side double,” said Kenworthy, who had a pair of doubles on the final two jumps but couldn’t top the 93. “It was a little sloppy though, and it wasn’t enough.”

Christensen earned a 91.7 on his third jump. Goepper followed with a strong effort on his final try.

“I tried to step it up on my second run, and I wasn’t successful,” said Goepper, who crashed on the final jump on his second run. “Then I stepped it up on my third run.”

He added a 1260 and a different rotation to his repertoire on the final effort and scored a 95.

“I was so happy,” said Goepper. “I didn’t know what the judges were going to do. I’m stoked that I got a 95.”

Kenworthy heard the announcement of Goepper’s score just before his final run. On his third effort, Kenworthy had hoped for his best attempt, but a slip on the landing on the second jump changed that. He finished with a 92.7.

“I was going to try to dump out a triple on the last jump, but I landed really sloppy on the second jump,” said Kenworthy. “So I decided to bail.”

Kenworthy won last year’s event with a 96. Goepper had taken second with 94.

“I knew he had a 95,” said Kenworthy. “Even without that score, it would have been hard to overtake him without doing something crazy. That was the plan, but it didn’t work out. Ninety-five’s a pretty good score. It’s as high as you could ever get. Ninety-seven is as good as you could expect to get. So I knew it would be hard to beat him.”

The slushy course made landing a challenge at times. A number of the competitors wiped out, nixing any hopes of a high score.

Goepper, Kenworthy and Christensen were part of a group of a dozen professional skiers and nearly 80 amateur skiers who came to Maine for the largest freeskiing event on the East Coast, and the only platinum-level slopestyle event recognized by the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP).  

[email protected]