U.S. Pairs 2017 - News & Updates, Part VII

[aftershocks]

Lynn Rutherford is so bias all the time

Yes, I guess Rutherford must be biased when she says something complimentary about a team that's not your fave. Meanwhile none of us fans are biased when we're pointing fingers and making pronouncements for our faves.

I love IN's final breakout teams tally: 3 for Cain/LeDuc (U.S. pairs); 2 for James/Cipres (international pairs)

But obviously, anything can happen during the season. How any one team fares is not dependent upon a pre-season IN survey. Keep in mind: This is not a scientific survey, just fun speculation and a sampling of journalists' opinions. We all know the Knierims are front-runner faves for the lone U.S. pairs Olympics spot. It's theirs to lose, and even then, they'll still likely win it no matter what, eh! New season, new selection process. But the season still must be competed, so let's bear that in mind as well.

We better strap on our seatbelts. The Olympic season is going to be one bumpy ride.

 

[aftershocks]

She is a very Tall girl and it will be a challenge for [C/L] to get the explosive Pair Elements that Alexa and Chris have ...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXjPrOCHycr/?hl=en&taken-by=icegirlash

Why not take a deep breath and stop disparaging Ash & Timothy? There wouldn't be any conversation to begin with about C/L if they hadn't made such notable strides in their first season together. They opened a lot of eyes, and their jumping abilities have had plenty of pairs teams beefing up the difficulty of their own respective jumping passes. C/L going for the throw 3-twist at Golden Spin for the first time when Ash had never performed a 3-twist in competition before is nothing to sneeze at. I'll bet that C/L helped inspire S-D/B to work on mastering their 3-twist too as a new team, in order to be competitive at Nationals.

C/L grabbing a bronze medal at Golden Spin of Zagreb in their debut international season is no small feat. C/L grabbing bronze at U.S. Nationals (and placing 1st in the sp) in their debut season together is not a minor accomplishment.

And even then, that was only because K&O were given ridiculous PCS gifts.

K/O deserved their win over the Knierims at 2016 Nationals, period. I'm sure the Knierims would agree, as they made too many missteps. K/O OTOH did not put a foot wrong at that event. The Knierims aren't exactly PCS powerhouses either, but sure they are the top U.S. team with international stature and respect from the judges (largely for their explosive quad twist, good looks, good lifts and growing overall improvements). Alexa & Chris have got to continue smoothing out their movement qualities, fine-tuning their performance skills, and above all landing their sbs jumps with much more consistency.

Chris may not always have his jumps

Chris does not always have his jumps, period. There's no 'may not' about it. Here's hoping that he has changed that aspect of his skating, or is changing it toward a positive and more consistent direction.

Im a bit in awe what Knierims were able to accomplish last year with nothing under their belt for the season.

Oh for sure, the Knierims did very well under pressure amidst coming back from Alexa's life-threatening illness and surgery with shortened training time. I think more than anything else, the Knierims came back with a very strong, positive and even more unified mind-set which was their greatest asset, along with the rep and respect they had previously built holding them in good stead with international judges. Alexa & Chris certainly were not perfectly clean at either 4CCs or Worlds in 2017, but their programs were lovely and they were fully committed to their programs, which makes a huge difference.

 

[nimi]

I was wondering about Weinberg/Fernandez (jr champions in 2016, didn't do well in seniors the season after). Have they officially quit or split? Anybody heard anything?

 

[Sylvia]

Refer to the Weinberg/Fernandez update posts in this thread back in March: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...s-updates-part-vii.100449/page-8#post-5025353

 

[nimi]

^^ Thanks @Sylvia!

Oh well...

 

[Karpenko]

I have nothing important to add, but who knew that Alexa's cat had a Twitter account? it's kind of hilarious and awesome.

 

[nimi]

I have nothing important to add, but who knew that Alexa's cat had a Twitter account?

I disagree. THIS IS VERY IMPURRRTANT.

 

[Sylvia]

Sarah Feng/TJ Nyman currently are listed to make their debut at JGP #5 in Zagreb, Croatia, along with Lockley/Prochnow (placeholders for Zagreb, I assume) who compete next week in Riga, Latvia. The sub list hasn't changed (Kopmar/Barrett, Lu/Mitrofanov, Marvaldi/Villeneuve, Secunda/Eisenach, Yao/Simon).

U.S. pairs entered in the Middle "Mid" Atlantics club competition in NYC, Sept. 8-9:
Senior: Castelli/Tran, Kayne/O'Shea, Fields/Stevens, Smith/Reiss, Timlen/Highgate-Brutman (debut)
Junior: Marvaldi/Villeneuve, Frantz/Frantz
Novice: Martins/Bedard, Hom/Jerosch (new)

ETA: 2 Novice pairs entered in club comps this week are Jasmine & Joshua Fendi (Golden West; N6 at 2017 Nationals) and JoJo & William Hubbart (Labor Day Inv. in Florida), who have re-teamed. The Hubbarts' younger brother, Nick, has paired up with Zoe Larson (Int6 with Aidan Brown at 2017 Nationals) in Intermediate. The Hubbarts appear to have relocated to the Zimmerman/Fontana/Barrett pairs camp.

 

[aftershocks]

I have nothing important to add, but who knew that Alexa's cat had a Twitter account? it's kind of hilarious and awesome.

Ashley Cain's dog also has his own Instagram account.

Here's a photo of Ash & Timothy during their sp at Champs Camp (slideshow with the Shibs and Grant H):

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYPG8LLH31a/

 

[aftershocks]

U.S. pairs entered in the Middle "Mid" Atlantics club competition in NYC, Sept. 8-9:
Senior: Castelli/Tran, Kayne/O'Shea, Fields/Stevens, Smith/Reiss, Timlen/Highgate-Brutman (debut)

I'm not familiar with this team, so I looked them up:
http://skatepairs.com/team/allison-justin/

 

[Karpenko]

"Does running late count as exercise?"
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYe1YMiHHLm/ (Deanna & Adam)

 

[Sylvia]

Good news re. Spencer Akira Howe - he has returned from representing Japan in Junior pairs and teamed up with a singles skater named Nadine Wang who qualified for Eastern Sectionals last year in Junior ladies. They are training in Montreal (where he started learning pairs 2 years ago) and are entered, along with the Frantz siblings, in the Junior Pairs event at the Souvenir Georges-Éthier competition in Beauport (a NE suburb of Quebec City), Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Wang/Howe are listed as representing USA. I've added this upcoming competition to my Pairs Scoretracker: https://unseenskaters.wordpress.com/scoretracker/current-pairs-scores/

 

[Bellanca]

"Does running late count as exercise?"
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYe1YMiHHLm/ (Deanna & Adam)

Heck yes! Every single Monday, I get plenty of exercise!

Love the pic!

 

[Sylvia]

2 U.S. pairs are listed for Finlandia Trophy, Oct. 6-8, 2017:
Jessica CALALANG / Zack SIDHU
Deanna STELLATO / Nathan BARTHOLOMAY

Subs:
Chelsea LIU / Brian JOHNSON
Jessica PFUND / Joshua SANTILLAN
Erika SMITH / AJ REISS

Listed for JGP #6 in Gdansk, Poland, Oct. 4-7 (3rd of 4 event for pairs):
Audrey LU / Misha MITROFANOV (scheduled for Minsk BLR, Sept. 20-23)
Alexandria YAO / Jacob SIMON (JGP debut for her)

Subs (5): Feng/Nyman, Kopmar/Barrett, Lockley/Prochnow, Marvaldi/Villeneuve, Secunda/Eisenach.

 

[DFO]

Listed for JGP #6 in Gdansk, Poland, Oct. 4-7 (3rd of 4 event for pairs):
Audrey LU / Misha MITROFANOV (scheduled for Minsk BLR, Sept. 20-23)
Alexandria YAO / Jacob SIMON (JGP debut for her).

Don't forget the "half" american pairs:
Isabella GAMEZ / Ton CONSUL ESP
Greta CRAFOORD / John CRAFOORD SWE

 

[Sylvia]

Isabella Gamez is listed to make her JGP debut for Spain at the 3rd pairs event in Zagreb, Croatia.

The Crafoord twins are scheduled to make their JGP debut for Sweden next week in Riga, Latvia. At the Golden West club competition this past weekend, they skated their FS to a Beach Boys medley (Surfin' USA/God Only Knows/Fun Fun Fun)... a tribute to their SoCal roots, perhaps?

 

[Jojo13]

Congratulations to Keenan and Laiken on a wonderful short program in Riga. Wishing them both a great free skate!

 

[Sylvia]

Congratulations to Keenan and Laiken on a wonderful short program in Riga. Wishing them both a great free skate!

They improved their ISU personal best SP score by over 6 points to 52.64 - 4th place today! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6jtdC04xJ4

 

[Jojo13]

Another great,solid skate by Keenan and Laiken!!! Congratulations to both on their fantastic international start this season. Looking forward to seeing them continue to grow and develop throughout 2017 - 2018!!!

 

[wickedwitch]

I'm fairly sure that Lockley/Prochnow's score was the best by an American junior team since Denney/Frazier won junior worlds. Congrats to them!

 

[Sylvia]

This is the only 2nd JGP in 2 years for Laiken Lockley/Keenan Prochnow and they improved their total score by over 20 points and FS by 15+ points from last year's 12th place debut in Dresden! Their 151.27 total in Riga was less than 3 points from 3rd and the scores for the top 5 teams were close, ranging from L/P's 151.27 (5th) to 157.51 (1st).

Here's Lockley/Prochnow's 3rd place FS (98.63) to music by Yann Tiersen, choreographed by Stefania Berton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAio6HPzedg

L/P are definitely worthy of a 2nd JGP and currently are assigned to the 3rd pairs event in Zagreb, Croatia (Sept. 27-30).

 

[Jojo13]

This is the only 2nd JGP in 2 years for Laiken Lockley/Keenan Prochnow and they improved their total score by over 20 points and FS by 15+ points from last year's 12th place debut in Dresden! Their 151.27 total in Riga was less than 3 points from 3rd and the scores for the top 5 teams were close, ranging from L/P's 151.27 (5th) to 157.51 (1st).

Here's Lockley/Prochnow's 3rd place FS (98.63) to music by Yann Tiersen, choreographed by Stefania Berton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAio6HPzedg

L/P are definitely worthy of a 2nd JGP and currently are assigned to the 3rd pairs event in Zagreb, Croatia (Sept. 27-30).

Definitely worthy of a 2nd JGP. They need to get more international exposure and earn those world points. In addition, they have another year of jgp eligibilty. This should be a clear cut decision. Invest in your junior teams and build for the future.

With new criteria they earned their 2nd assignment. USFSA needs to stand by the standards they set. Therefore, Audrey/Misha and Sarah/TJ should also be assigned to 2. Both these teams also have more years of junior eligibility.

 

[clairecloutier]

So, just a summary of how the U.S. pairs did in competition this week ....

U.S. junior pair Lockley/Prochnow competed at JGP Riga and placed 5th overall (4th SP/3rd FS). It was quite a good showing for them! What impressed me was L/P's technical content: Triple twist, throw 3Lp, throw 3S, SBS 3S, SBS 2A/2T in the free skate. The last few years, junior U.S. pairs have often lacked a triple twist or 2 throw triple jumps, so it was great to see these elements from Lockley/Prochnow. Last year at their GP event, they did only double twist in the long program, so nice to see them upgrade to triple twist. Not only that, their triple twist actually looks great and they achieved level 4 on it in both programs at Riga--really, really impressive. Still much work to do, but great start to the season for Lockley/Prochnow. They compete again at JGP Croatia at the end of this month.

L/P Riga SP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6jtdC04xJ4
L/P Riga LP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAio6HPzedg&t=199s

Two U.S. senior pairs competed at the Mid-Atlantics club event in New York. Castelli/Tran won the competition (1st SP/2nd FS). Marissa/Mervin showed some improvement from their first event at Quebec Summer Championships, with higher scores in both programs here. Still not where they want to be; but at least, an improvement. Their throw jumps were better here in the FS, although SBS jumps were still a struggle. Castelli/Tran's FS score of 115.94 is #3 on the list for senior U.S. pairs so far this season, so not likely to advance them much in the race for the Skate America host spot. (Stellato/Bartholomay still lead with their 124.68 from Orange Blossom--although they did not come close to that mark in their following events.)

C/T Mids LP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ2P0tn3sak

Fields/Stevens continued on the comeback trail at Mid-Atlantics. Their free skate score (94.54) was lower than what they earned at Dance-Pairs Chicago (104.75). But, not bad, and it's great to see them back on the ice again. Their elements were rather shaky at Mids, but it's great to see them going for triple twist.

F/S Mids LP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewlWuEA51Ec

Other Mid-Atlantics news--Kayne/O'Shea and Smith/Reiss were originally entered in this event, but apparently decided not to compete. Kayne/O'Shea had to evacuate from Florida this week due to the hurricane. They do not have an early Challenger Series assignment, and it looks like we may not see them until GP Cup of China in early November. It was reported earlier in the thread by @Jojo13 that Smith/Reiss have left Skate Pairs in Boston; any news on their new coaches? They do not currently have any CS assignments, per the USFS international assignments page.

Next week, we'll see 5 U.S. senior pairs make their Challenger Series debuts: Knierims, Denney/Frazier, Liu/Johnson, and Stellato/Bartholomay at U.S. International Classic, and Cain/LeDuc at Lombardia.

U.S. junior pairs resume competition in 2 weeks at JGP Minsk.

 

[CassAgain]

Just now catching up on JGP pairs in Riga--Lockley and Pochnow have the potential to be fantastic, and are already technically on their way and present themselves wonderfully. I was completely charmed by them.

Thank you Claire, for the update on all the pairs from this week.

Love to the Florida teams, both U.S. and international, and coaches.

 

[DFO]

So, just a summary of how the U.S. pairs did in competition this week ....

And dont forget the interesting performance of Martins/Bedard (best of the year yet with 103,75) and a good 97,95 (only beaten by Martins/Bedard this year) for the first outing of Hom/Jerosch, both at Mid-Atlantics.

 

[aftershocks]

Does anyone know how the skaters who train in Florida are doing?? Have they evacuated in the hard hit areas?

 

[Cleo1782]

Best wishes to all the skaters in Florida! Hoping everything is okay.

 

[aftershocks]

I saw no recent tweets on Jim Peterson's Twitter. Here's the latest comment from Tarah that references the storm:
Tarah Kayne‏Verified account @TarahKayne 20h20 hours ago
Danny & I have safely evacuated Florida, but both of our hearts are with our family & friends who chose to stay through #HurricaineIrma

Plus this hilarious pinned tweet which brings a smile:
https://twitter.com/TarahKayne/status/904137300250124289

My thoughts are with our skating family and with my immediate family and friends in Florida. Prayers for your friends and family too @skatesindreams!

 

[TanithandBenFan]

Jim Peterson and Amanda Evora are in NYC per their Instagram accounts.

 

[aftershocks]

Jim Peterson and Amanda Evora are in NYC per their Instagram accounts.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY1DKqxhnqF/?taken-by=jpcoach