Buyten wins gold, Jones makes the finals

Carson City's Matt Buyten won his second gold in Moto X Step Up at the X Games on Saturday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

The Step Up competition was a bit of a letdown, particularly after because the riders had trouble with the setup.

Step Up is essentially high jumping on a motorcycle, the riders taking turns trying to clear a certain height. Each competitor gets two tries and the ones who make it move on, with the bar being raised six inches each round.

Buyton lost a game of can-you-top-this Jeremy McGrath in 2004, finishing second to his idol in one of the best Step Up duels in X Games history. Buyton got the better of McGrath this time, but the competition only lasted three rounds because no one else could get past 23 feet.

"I personally wasn't feeling the lip," Buyton said. "Every rider's different and I just couldn't feel the lip. I just did the best I could and pulled as hard as possible and it was good enough for the win."

Another Carson City rider, Adam Jones, came through when he need it the most to advance to today's finals in the X Games Moto X Freestyle event.

Jones qualfied third for today's finals in Saturday's preliminaries Jones had a subpar effort in his first run, scoring just 84 points.

But he stepped it up in his second and final run, scoring 89.40. Travis Pastrana qualified first at 92.20 and Mike Mason qualified second at 90.20.

The top five advanced to today's finals. Jones also placed sixth in Friday's Moto X Best Trick event.