Clark, just off her season's first win at the Open, put down a frontside air, backside 540, frontside 720, cab 720, frontside 540 for her podium.
Bleiler followed things up with a frontside air, backside 540, frontside 540, cab 720, to straight air for third.
"It's hard to think of this contest as the first contest of the season because it's August, but it's great to compete against everyone in the world and get third," Bleiler said. "I'm looking at it as good practice. The summer training is where I'm polishing everything I need to polish so that I go into the season at 100 percent and ready to throw my runs at any given time."
Ellery Hollingsworth (Stratton, VT) also had a killer day as the new high school grad sealed a solid run for a fifth-place finish to round out the top-10 results for U.S. women.
The halfpipe World Cup hits the brakes until its next competition Nov. 4 in Switzerland, but snowboardcross kicks its World Cup tour off Sept. 12 in Argentina.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP
Aug. 26, 2009
Halfpipe
Women
1. Jiayu Liu, China, 44.1
2. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, VT, 40.5
3. Gretchen Bleiler, Aspen, CO, 37.1
4. Queralt Castellet, Spain, 35.3
5. Ellery Hollingsworth, Stratton, VT, 34.2
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11. Maddy Schaffrick, Steamboat Springs, CO, 25.8
13. Jamie Anderson, South Lake Tahoe, CA, 23.4
