Decided to drive up to Aston for the Philly comp. I used to go every year pre-Covid, last year I went was 2022, so decided to go up for the Junior Women and Senior FS. OMG, the traffic - took me 2 hours (normally 1 hour 20 min) with construction messes everywhere. Thankfully the trip home tonight was uneventful. Anyway, random thoughts and observations...
Good job by Jessica Jurka winning Junior Women (she has landed 3A in practice, right?). Her jumps looked solid.
Sofia B is now with Malinina/Skorniakov. I hope they can help with her jump technique, her URs are going to kill her on the JGP. IMO she has a lot of potential. Not sure of her music...maybe Moonlight Sonata? I'm bad at music ID and I don't have Shazam, sorry! Last time I saw Sofia was at Legacy on Ice skating a tribute to her lost coach and training mates, so it was good to now see her happy and hanging out off the ice with other skaters.
Skylar Lautowa-Peguero had some jump difficulties but skated with a lot of speed, good skating skills, strong presentation, I think she got the highest PCS, well-deserved.
Lucius K landed 4T-3T, fell on 2nd 4T and turned out of the landing of his 3A. The jumps are pretty much there, but he needs to work on his skating skills and his spins...speed, positions, everything. Savary skated right after him and the difference was sizable. Unfortunately for Savary, he just doesn't have the jumps (doubled 4S, 3T instead of 4T, no 3Lz) to match his skating skills and musicality.
It's too bad Schizas couldn't stay in top 10 at Worlds to set Canada up to earn a second Oly spot. Daleman (i guess i missed that she is now working with Tammy Gambill) is showing flashes of her old self. Started off with great 3Lz and 3F, then popped a 3Lo and seemed to run out of gas in the 2nd half. Skating to Samson and Delilah (she did that previously, right?).
Higase-Chen started off strong with a good 3F-3T but also seemed to run out of gas in the 2nd half.
Juliana Barshay (another Malinina/Skorniakov skater) had a nice program to The Hunger Games soundtrack.
Clare Seo didn't have a coach here. Tammy was at the event for Logan and Gabby so I assume she is no longer Clare's coach (or maybe that was already posted here and i missed it). Clare is showing more maturity and a beautiful spiral that she held for several seconds, but the jumps just aren't there.
Thanks to the Nats scheduling and sending the Juniors out to the hinterlands, I probably won't see any Juniors in St. Louis, so glad I got to see some of them here.
