2019-20 U.S. International Selection Pool (ISP) list published

[Sylvia]

Just saw the list has been published online: https://www.usfigureskating.org/story?id=84156&menu=TeamUSA
I've added 2019 Nationals placements (Senior/Junior/Novice) below where applicable.

"The 2019-20 International Selection Pool (ISP) includes age-eligible athletes/teams being considered for an international competition. All ISP athletes/teams are required to complete the competition readiness requirements. Athletes/teams may be added or removed from the International Selection Pool through the duration of the 2019-20 season."


LADIES
Starr Andrews S8
Mariah Bell S3
Karen Chen
Calista Choi N1
Ting Cui S5
Amber Glenn S7
Hanna Harrell S4
Courtney Hicks S16
Aubrey Ignacio N3
Isabelle Inthisone N2
Gabriella Izzo J1
Pooja Kalyan S-wd (9th in SP)
Alysa Liu S1
Emmy Ma S9
Emilia Murdock J3
Akari Nakahara S10
Audrey Shin J2
Bradie Tennell S2
Megan Wessenberg S6

MEN
Lucas Altieri J5
William Annis N1
Jason Brown S3
Nathan Chen S1
Ryan Dunk J1
Tomoki Hiwatashi S4
Joseph Kang J6
Liam Kapeikis N5
Joonsoo Kim J3
Joseph Klein N4
Alex Krasnozhon S5
Max Lake J8
Peter Liu J4
Ilia Malinin N3
Matthew Nielsen N2
Eric Prober N6
Camden Pulkinen S12
Eric Sjoberg J10
Andrew Torgashev S7
Dinh Tran J2
Vincent Zhou S2

PAIRS
Ashley Cain & Timothy LeDuc S1
Jessica Calalang & Brian Johnson S5
Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier S2
Nica Digerness & Danny Neudecker S8
Sarah Feng & TJ Nyman
Kate Finster & Balazs Nagy J2
Cate Fleming & Jedidiah Isbell N2
Isabelle Goldstein & Keyton Bearinger N1
Tarah Kayne & Danny O’Shea S4
Grace Knoop & Blake Eisenach J5
Laiken Lockley & Keenan Prochnow J1
Audrey Lu & Misha Mitrofanov S6
Isabelle Martins & Ryan Bedard J3
Alexa Scimeca-Knierim & Chris Knierim S7
Anastasiia Smirnova & Danil Siianytsia N3
Erika Smith & AJ Reiss S9
Allison Timlen & Justin Highgate-Brutman S12

ICE DANCE
Ella Ales & Daniel Tsarik J7
Oona Brown & Gage Brown J4
Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko S5
Molly Cesanek & Yehor Yehorov J5
Madison Chock & Evan Bates S2
Sophia Elder & Christopher Elder J8
Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker S3
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue S1
Karina Manta & Joseph Johnson S7
Lorraine McNamara & Quinn Carpenter S4
Avonley Nguyen & Vadym Kolesnik J2


Notably missing (no public announcements yet, AFAIK):
Deanna Stellato & Nathan Bartholomay S3
Caroline & Gordon Green J1
Eliana Gropman & Ian Somerville J3 - ETA: Gropman has shared her side of the story on IG (as posted Friday evening in the U.S. Dance thread) linked from here: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...ason-news-updates.104092/page-26#post-5571034

Tim Dolensky S6 posted 2 photos on his IG 2 days ago along with the caption "Cheers to new adventures": https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvyu0a2nx7L/

 

[Doggygirl]

I was very sad to NOT see Steallato/Bartholomay on the list. I hope this doesn't mean..... I guess she can't skate competitively forever, but still.....

 

[angi]

So we have S/B and S/T not listed for pairs, Gracie Gold not listed for ladies and the Greens and the Parsons not listed for dance. The Parsons I expected after the announcement this week but the rest is a surprise.

 

[Debbie S]

Bummed about the Greens and G/S. And S/B, but I kind of expected that after Nats this year. I've been a fan of G/S since their Novice days.

Gracie can probably get added with a decent skate at Liberty/Philly or some other summer comp. Interesting that Karen is still on the list, since I assumed her going to Cornell meant her competitive days were over. But there is a rink on campus, and there's always FaceTime....

ETA: No Sarah Jung (J4) on the list. The U.S. does have the max number of JGP spots, I would think they would add at least as many JGP-eligible ladies as men.

 

[wickedwitch]

So we have S/B and S/T not listen for pairs, Gracie Gold not listed for ladies and the Greens and the Parsons not listed for dance. The Parsons I expected after the announcement this week but the rest is a surprise.

S/T (assuming you mean Serafini/Tran) almost certainly don't have the minimum scores required to be listed. Same for Gracie.

 

[Stephanie]

About the Greens

Looking forward to seeing what junior dance teams form and how they do in the summer. JGP spots are pretty wide open at this point

 

[Wyliefan]

What exactly is going on with the Greens, anyone know?

 

[natsulian]

I hope more Junior ladies are added after the summer competitions.

So far we have:
- Alysa Liu
- Hanna Harrell (assuming she stays junior)
- Calista Choi
- Aubrey Ignacio
- Isabelle Inthisone
- Gabriella Izzo (assuming she stays Junior)
- Emilia Murdock
- Audrey Shin

I’m hoping for Kate Wang, Lindsay Thorngren, and Sarah Jung.

 

[Stephanie]

I hope more Junior ladies are added after the summer competitions.

So far we have:
- Alysa Liu
- Hanna Harrell (assuming she stays junior)
- Calista Choi
- Aubrey Ignacio
- Isabelle Inthisone
- Gabriella Izzo (assuming she stays Junior)
- Emilia Murdock
- Audrey Shin

I’m hoping for Kate Wang, Lindsay Thorngren, and Sarah Jung.

Hoping for Alena Budko

 

[meggonzo]

S/T (assuming you mean Serafini/Tran) almost certainly don't have the minimum scores required to be listed. Same for Gracie.

So would they have to compete at one of the summer club competitions, like Liberty or Glacier Falls, to get minimum scores?

 

[wickedwitch]

So would they have to compete at one of the summer club competitions, like Liberty or Glacier Falls, to get minimum scores?

Yes. They could have also gotten it at Nats, but they didn't skate well enough there.

 

[jiejie]

Angela Wang also missing. I would not be surprised if she retires, but haven't heard any announcement. Courtney Hicks is still hanging in there. Of course, Ashley and Mirai are gone and it's been pretty obvious they are done.

Whatever happened to Kaitlyn Nguyen? Is she still skating? She was MIA this past season so didn't earn scores to get on the ISP from the start of course.

 

[jiejie]

Alexander Johnson is missing from Men's.

No Shibs in dance, but I've kind of assumed they are done with competitive skating.

 

[RoseRed]

Alexander Johnson is missing from Men's.

No Shibs in dance, but I've kind of assumed they are done with competitive skating.

Alex Johnson had announced that Nationals was his last event.

 

[jiejie]

Alex Johnson had announced that Nationals was his last event.

Ah, missed that. I'll miss him. He never broke through to the top, but when he was "on" he was a beautiful skater.

 

[Sylvia]

Excerpt from an Alex Johnson article that was published on Oct. 4, 2018: https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...r-johnson-savors-every-chance-to-compete.aspx

Instead, his summer was occupied by the coveted internship, which involved assisting Lazard's bankers with crafting pitches to potential clients; performing due diligence by sorting through documents pertinent to deals; helping to value private companies by looking for comparable public entities; and other tasks far removed from triple Axels and camel-change-camel spins.
"The deal teams at Lazard are pretty small, there are anywhere from four to six people working on a deal at a time, so as an intern it was a variety of tasks," Johnson said. "I loved it. It was just such a different experience from anything I've ever done. Sitting at a desk for 12 to 16 hours a day definitely took some getting used to and I learned a ton."
Lazard was impressed. Johnson's hard work and enthusiasm won him a job offer, starting next spring.

Edited to reply to @jiejie's question:

Whatever happened to Kaitlyn Nguyen? Is she still skating? She was MIA this past season so didn't earn scores to get on the ISP from the start of course.

I posted last November in an earlier U.S. Ladies thread:
"In case anyone was wondering about 2017 U.S. junior champion Kaitlyn Nguyen, she missed all of this season due to injury but is training again and hoping to be back next season."

Nguyen was listed in the ISP from the start of last season but did not compete in any club/non-qualifying competitions or enter Regionals.

 

[meggonzo]

No Katie McBeath either.

 

[Rhino]

No Ashley Lin either. Her Season's Best of 181 is well good enough for a GP invite. How badly is she injured?

 

[Jeschke]

Angela Wang also missing.

Wang will go down as one if my #whatcouldhavebeen's

 

[aftershocks]

Alexander Johnson is missing from Men's.

Alex made it known awhile ago that last season was all she wrote for him. He was known to be retiring. I'm surprised not to see Sean Rabbitt listed, but maybe he's also retiring? Hopefully Sean will remain involved as a choreographer and a coach. I'm not surprised that Timothy Dolensky has retired from eligible skating. It seemed as if he was making one final effort this past season to get on the podium. He placed 6th. Tim has so much talent as a skater, so I'm sad he's not continuing. I wish there were more pro opportunities available for good skaters. But anyway, judging by his Instagram post, it appears that Tim D may have signed up to skate on a cruise ship. Good for him!

I was very sad to NOT see Steallato/Bartholomay on the list. I hope this doesn't mean..... I guess she can't skate competitively forever, but still.....

As per @Sylvia's comments in the U.S. Pairs thread, Deanna Stellato was recently at USFS' pairs tryout camp in Dallas. Nate Bartholomay was missing. There has been no official announcement of any kind. I'm wondering if this means Deanna is continuing and looking for a partner, while Nate may have decided to move on (and continue coaching)?

Eliana Gropman & Ian Somerville J3 - ETA: Gropman has shared her side of the story on IG (as posted Friday evening in the U.S. Dance thread) linked from here: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...ason-news-updates.104092/page-26#post-5571034

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4dkYY9MPqg Eliana/Ian junior FD 2019 U.S. Nationals
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnlmZEtFF0p/ great footage of Ian & Eliana from On Ice Perspectives

A brief 2017 interview with Ian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKwN9gWZY6I

Who is Ian's new partner?

 

[aftershocks]

What exactly is going on with the Greens, anyone know?

They clearly had a tough time at Junior Worlds. Caroline was coming back from injury AFAIK, and maybe it's all been a bit harder than expected adjusting to loss of international competitive momentum, injury rehab, growth spurt. Who knows?

 

[Dobre]

No Ashley Lin either. Her Season's Best of 181 is well good enough for a GP invite. How badly is she injured?

Someone on GS had mentioned her--during the last month or so--as possibly switching to skate for China? I've no idea if it's true, and I only read it the one time. I just remembered it as it seemed like an opportunity for her if true.

 

[her grace]

Interesting that there are no novice dance teams listed. IIRC this is SOP for USFS, and they only add novices after they've skated a junior summer competition--but it seems odd that all the other disciplines get their best novices included in the initial ISP.

 

[Dobre]

Interesting that there are no novice dance teams listed. IIRC this is SOP for USFS, and they only add novices after they've skated a junior summer competition--but it seems odd that all the other disciplines get their best novices included in the initial ISP.

I think it's surprising too as Tkachenko & Kiliakov and Lin & Sletten have had really stellar novice seasons. (Defeating Canada's best novice teams and both medaling in their international event in Europe. Both were selected for that event prior to Nationals, I think). Last year Wolfkostin & Zhao were on the ISP early, weren't they? They didn't place that high during the summer, but they were novice champions the year before; and I thought they were listed initially. The Browns had to be added, but W&Z were already on the list as far as I can remember. (Also maybe Gunter & Wein the year they moved up?)

 

[A.H.Black]

What exactly is going on with the Greens, anyone know?

They clearly had a tough time at Junior Worlds. Caroline was coming back from injury AFAIK, and maybe it's all been a bit harder than expected adjusting to loss of international competitive momentum, injury rehab, growth spurt. Who knows?

Caroline Green was very ill last summer and it took her some time to recover. The Greens were very private about the whole thing but there was an article about it at the time of Jr. Worlds - https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...green-head-to-junior-worlds-as-us-champs.aspx

Nothing has been said about their future plans that I have seen.

 

[Bob Mc]

Just saw the list has been published online: https://www.usfigureskating.org/story?id=84156&menu=TeamUSA
I've added 2019 Nationals placements (Senior/Junior/Novice) below where applicable.

"The 2019-20 International Selection Pool (ISP) includes age-eligible athletes/teams being considered for an international competition. All ISP athletes/teams are required to complete the competition readiness requirements. Athletes/teams may be added or removed from the International Selection Pool through the duration of the 2019-20 season."


LADIES
Starr Andrews S8
Mariah Bell S3
Karen Chen
Calista Choi N1
Ting Cui S5
Amber Glenn S7
Hanna Harrell S4
Courtney Hicks S16
Aubrey Ignacio N3
Isabelle Inthisone N2
Gabriella Izzo J1
Pooja Kalyan S-wd (9th in SP)
Alysa Liu S1
Emmy Ma S9
Emilia Murdock J3
Akari Nakahara S10
Audrey Shin J2
Bradie Tennell S2
Megan Wessenberg S6

MEN
Lucas Altieri J5
William Annis N1
Jason Brown S3
Nathan Chen S1
Ryan Dunk J1
Tomoki Hiwatashi S4
Joseph Kang J6
Liam Kapeikis N5
Joonsoo Kim J3
Joseph Klein N4
Alex Krasnozhon S5
Max Lake J8
Peter Liu J4
Ilia Malinin N3
Matthew Nielsen N2
Eric Prober N6
Camden Pulkinen S12
Eric Sjoberg J10
Andrew Torgashev S7
Dinh Tran J2
Vincent Zhou S2

PAIRS
Ashley Cain & Timothy LeDuc S1
Jessica Calalang & Brian Johnson S5
Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier S2
Nica Digerness & Danny Neudecker S8
Sarah Feng & TJ Nyman
Kate Finster & Balazs Nagy J2
Cate Fleming & Jedidiah Isbell N2
Isabelle Goldstein & Keyton Bearinger N1
Tarah Kayne & Danny O’Shea S4
Grace Knoop & Blake Eisenach J5
Laiken Lockley & Keenan Prochnow J1
Audrey Lu & Misha Mitrofanov S6
Isabelle Martins & Ryan Bedard J3
Alexa Scimeca-Knierim & Chris Knierim S7
Anastasiia Smirnova & Danil Siianytsia N3
Erika Smith & AJ Reiss S9
Allison Timlen & Justin Highgate-Brutman S12

ICE DANCE
Ella Ales & Daniel Tsarik J7
Oona Brown & Gage Brown J4
Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko S5
Molly Cesanek & Yehor Yehorov J5
Madison Chock & Evan Bates S2
Sophia Elder & Christopher Elder J8
Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker S3
Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue S1
Karina Manta & Joseph Johnson S7
Lorraine McNamara & Quinn Carpenter S4
Avonley Nguyen & Vadym Kolesnik J2


Notably missing (no public announcements yet, AFAIK):
Deanna Stellato & Nathan Bartholomay S3
Caroline & Gordon Green J1
Eliana Gropman & Ian Somerville J3 - ETA: Gropman has shared her side of the story on IG (as posted Friday evening in the U.S. Dance thread) linked from here: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...ason-news-updates.104092/page-26#post-5571034

Tim Dolensky S6 posted 2 photos on his IG 2 days ago along with the caption "Cheers to new adventures": https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvyu0a2nx7L/

 

[Bob Mc]

Jessica Pfund and Josh Santillan are returning to competition this year, after numerous injuries in 2018.
They will be performing in a show at Penn State University in a few weeks and have several competitions planned for the summer of 2019. We wish them success in their return to pairs competition.

 

[WillyElliot]

I was very sad to NOT see Steallato/Bartholomay on the list. I hope this doesn't mean..... I guess she can't skate competitively forever, but still.....

Didn't you anticipate this, based on Deanna's reaction in the K/C? She looked like she was over it.

 

[Stephanie]

Didn't you anticipate this, based on Deanna's reaction in the K/C? She looked like she was over it.

Not to mention her response to being passed over for the 4CCs team

 

[Willin]

Either she and Nate decided they didn't want to deal with USFS's politics or USFS passed them up after their comments since there's a lot of promising teams in the pipeline.

Somehow, though I think the most realistic explanation is that they are simply in the discussion stage - that is, they told USFS they are deciding their future and USFS didn't put them in the pool for that reason. The ISP listings sometimes change throughout the summer, so it's possible they'll be added back later.