2021 US Nationals Junior Men

[Rukia]

I enjoy Klein a lot. He's been working the 3A right? Honestly I give these kids tons of credit for just showing up and being trained after everything that has happened.

 

[Rukia]

I love Newsies

 

[Rukia]

Aww, I think he got a little gassed there in the middle, but he's a great entertainer.

 

[Lacey]

Hope I'm in the right thread, where is every body?

Love Eric Prober having a shocking pink undershirt on that onlyshows sometimes, very understated.

His skating is very full, lovely.

 

[Rukia]

Great skate for Prober

 

[Karen-W]

Hope I'm in the right thread, where is every body?

Love Eric Prober having a shocking pink undershirt on that onlyshows sometimes, very understated.

His skating is very full, lovely.

We're here, just not many of us.

Prober is really good. He came to win. Solid 3As. Now, all he needs are the quads.

 

[Sylvia]

I enjoy Klein a lot. He's been working the 3A right?

Yes.

With 2 to go:

Eric Prober 127.79 (1) 192.83 - 6 triples landed, including ++GOE on his two 3A
Joseph Klein 123.70 (2) 187.30
Samuel Mindra 121.12 (3) 181.49
Jacob Sanchez 110.64 (6) 177.55
Daniel Martynov 114.39 (5) 176.45
Lucas Broussard 120.43 (4) 175.49

 

[Rukia]

Hahaa I love that reaction to his score too.

 

[just tuned in]

So, the way Jacob Sanchez said he wasn't here for a medal? I think Prober is.

 

[Debbie S]

I remember Eric at the lower levels at Regionals. He was a tiny kid with long red hair. And skated at 100 miles an hour. He's still rough around the edges, but I like his power and attack.

 

[Karen-W]

So, the way Jacob Sanchez said he wasn't here for a medal? I think Prober is.

Yup! He's a competitor and not afraid of it, based on his reaction in KnC.

 

[BittyBug]

This poor kid looks crushed.

 

[Lacey]

I remember Eric at the lower levels at Regionals. He was a tiny kid with long red hair. And skated at 100 miles an hour. He's still rough around the edges, but I like his power and attack.

And Eric has sustained inner strength...

 

[dinakt]

That Aznavour song is a total throwback to Soviet times, but it is gorgeous and I love it.
(((Zharkov)))

 

[BittyBug]

Oh geez. I bet Zharkov would like a do over on this.

 

[just tuned in]

Injury maybe? Might have stung his right ankle on the first fall.

 

[Karen-W]

This is rough to watch.

I prefer to explain it thusly: The podium only allows for one ginger.

On the bright side, Samuel Mindra won the bronze! Go Oregon ice skating (in spite of Nanny Brown)!

 

[just tuned in]

Hey, Jacob got a medal after all!

 

[Sylvia]

Poor Zharkov - the falls on the opening 3 jumps - 4T (called <), 3A+2T & 3Lz really took him out of his performance mentally. Tough to watch.

Bet little Jacob Sanchez didn't expect to medal (pewter) this way... congrats to Eric Prober, Joseph Klein, Samuel Mindra for 1-3!

 

[BittyBug]

Ouch.

 

[Debbie S]

Sanchez will medal after all.

Congratulations to Eric Prober!

 

[Lacey]

1, 2, 3, and 4 in final placements were 3. 4. 8 and 1 in the short.

 

[BittyBug]

That was a wild shift in standings!

 

[Sylvia]

GOLD Eric Prober, Panthers FSC 65.04 (3 SP) 127.79 (1 FS) 192.83
SILVER Joseph Klein, Skokie Valley SC 63.60 (4) 123.70 (2) 187.30
BRONZE Samuel Mindra, Portland ISC 60.37 (8) 121.12 (3) 181.49
PEWTER Jacob Sanchez, Hudson Valley FSC 66.91 (1) 110.64 (6) 177.55
5 Daniel Martynov, Great Lakes FSC 62.06 (6) 114.39 (5) 176.45
6 Lucas Broussard, Highland SC 55.06 (12) 120.43 (4) 175.49
7 Matthew Nielsen, Winterhurst FSC 62.31 (5) 109.99 (7) 172.30
8 Michael Xie, All Year FSC 57.89 (11) 105.95 (8) 163.84
9 Liam Kapeikis, Wenatchee FSC 58.37 (9) 104.52 (9) 162.89
10 Robert Yampolsky, North Jersey FSC 61.60 (7) 99.25 (10) 160.85
11 Nicholas Hsieh, SC of Wilmington 57.93 (10) 95.06 (11) 152.99
12 Maxim Zharkov, Dallas FSC 65.51 (2) 75.76 (12) 141.27

FS protocols: https://ijs.usfigureskating.org/leaderboard/results/2021/27989/SEGM012.html

That was a wild shift in standings!

I expected movement but not THAT much!

ETA #2:

Top 3 PCS in free skate:
Broussard 67.10
Klein 65.70
Mindra 64.60

 

[Rukia]

Broussard definitely deserved the top PCS

 

[tony]

Zharkov came close to matching his SP score in his LP. I don’t think anyone has ever scored lower in the LP, but I know Daisuke Takahashi also came pretty close at TEB one year.

 

[Frau Muller]

That was a wild shift in standings!

And that’s why I love the IJS system so much...accumulation of points, rather than weighing ordinals & such.

 

[Frau Muller]

Just watching this event on Peacock replays...finished watching the first six.

OMG - LUCA BROUSSARD!!! What musical flair and beauty! He may have ended up 6th overall (4th FS) but, boy, will I be keeping my eye on him as a potential successor to Jason Brown. Also love that he, like so many Jrs, are skating to classical music!!!

In this first GP, I also loved Samuel Mindra with Bells if Moscow. Wow, the artistic future of male skating in the USA is looking good...and in Canada, with Corey Circelli!

Ok, back to watching the last group on Peacock...
UPDATE after watching all:

Love Joseph Klein (silver medal), another future star...totally invested in his music! Good transitions. Joy to watch!

Jacob Sanchez (4th overall, 1st in SP) also has glimmerings of artistry. After solid start, with musically-placed jumps, had a weak showing...but this adorable young lad will live to skate another day!

Congrats to the gold medalist, Eric Prober, whose rushed pushing style may not be my cup of tea but, hey, he had the best tech tonight. Also...cheers to Prober for the best Kiss n Cry reaction to a win this week...in addition to Alexa Knierim for Sr Pairs!

 

[Sylvia]

@mtnskater wins the "prescient post" award from me for mentioning most of the successful junior singles skaters from the virtual qualifying competition in this January 2nd post : https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...-2021-us-nationals.107891/page-3#post-5923850

Congratulations to Eric Prober. The things he can accomplish when he doesn't have to jump into a crowd of public skaters

Here's what Eric said about that in the Junior FS recap article (last section):

To qualify for the U.S. Championships, Prober placed seventh in the U.S. Championship Series. His free skate for the virtual competition was recorded on a public session that he said had roughly 17 people.

"I had school online and I couldn't really skip classes," Prober explained. "I had to do it on a public session, and that was a challenge. It wasn't a full-size sheet, so I dealt with that and needed to get used to the bigger ice here."

For anyone who missed watching Prober's virtual FS filmed on a public session, he was the 3rd skater in the Jr. Men's Free Skate 2 video on Peacock.

Broussard has a beautiful FS program to Rachmaninov (landed 7 triples cleanly to win the virtual qualifying event over the guys with triple Axels). I hope he can showcase his best skating qualities tonight!

I had a feeling @Frau Muller would appreciate Lucas' classical FS performance. For those interested, Broussard's clean FS performance in qualifying for Nationals, with the 3Lz+3T he didn't do last night, can be viewed after the 36-minute mark of the Jr. Men's Free Skate 1 video on Peacock.

 

[Sylvia]

Rooting hard here for the local Oregon kid! Go Samuel!

@Karen-W - I didn't see this excellent local article by Paul Danzer that originally was published before Mindra competed and won the bronze:

Serpentine journey to skating nationals

Update: Samuel Mindra places third among Junior Men at U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

pamplinmedia.com

For those who prefer not to register for free to read the article, you can listen to the audio version with a computer voice reading the text aloud. Mindra is one of nine (eta correction) TEN children in his family! His sister Leana was his chaperone in Las Vegas.

Photos shared by his training group called Team Axis ("A team committed to building national and international figure skaters in the Pacific Northwest.") - includes a photo with his coach, Mari Malama: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKVsb2MpayB/