After a see-saw battle, Currie (29) had to settle for runner-up but it did not feel like second prize for the rookie.
''Although I'm always going to be gutted not to win the pro series, if someone had said to me five years ago, 'You will be second in the 2015 US Xterra Championship', I would never have thought it was possible,'' he said.
An Achilles injury early in the season has hampered Currie's running pace in recent months.
But he was satisfied he had laid everything on the line.
''The last two Xterra races I felt I underperformed but [yesterday] I was stoked to see some big improvements in my riding. I've been putting a lot of work into my mountain biking over the last month.''
Currie began strongly, leading the pack through the two-lap, 1500m lake swim. He exited the water first and got stuck into the 28km mountain bike section.
''The course was really suited to me as it was pretty much all climbing and all single track.''
At the first bike split, Currie had extended his lead and managed to hold off Middaugh until the descent section, where they powered down to the run transition together.
Currie got out of the transition area first and began the 15-minute climb up to the Snowbasin Resort ski slope.
He duelled with Middaugh for the lead throughout the 10.4km trail run, but Middaugh pulled away to win by 10sec.
''My goal was to win this Pro Series, but I had set my goals pretty high. Coming second, is never as good as first, but I feel so much stronger going into the World Xterra Champs in Hawaii at the beginning of November.''
