U.S. Pairs 2019-20 season - News & Updates, Part X

[HeatherC]

I have no problem being the lone person here who hopes that Tarah and Danny have an awesome competition this week and end up in the top two overall. They were so devastated last year (that's been burned in my poor brain for a year ) so I really want them to have a better competition in Greensboro.

 

[insideedgeua]

I have no problem being the lone person here who hopes that Tarah and Danny have an awesome competition this week and end up in the top two overall. They were so devastated last year (that's been burned in my poor brain for a year ) so I really want them to have a better competition in Greensboro.

You’re not alone! I hope that have a great week too!

 

[maureenfarone]

I hope all of the pairs skate great! It has been sad the last few years with so many of pairs injured so I just hope all the skaters are healthy and we have a great competition and no one has to withdraw

 

[Joubabe]

Not a lot of love for Serifini/ Tran here I guess? I like them better than Lu/Mitrofanov, but I see them as heck and neck with Pfund/ Santillan. Still, Lu/ Mitrofanov tend to be pretty consistent

I think Mervin is amazing and enjoy watching him skate with any partner. A lot of my support for Lu/Mitrofanov comes from the fact that they're young and I want to promote their talent for the future.

 

[miffy]

I’m rooting for D/F and C/L to be top 2 but my biggest hope is that the judging is actually fair!

 

[Wyliefan]

Not a lot of love for Serifini/ Tran here I guess?

I have no problem being the lone person here who hopes that Tarah and Danny have an awesome competition this week and end up in the top two overall.

I can top both of you: I'm rooting for Lockley/Prochnow. Not that I expect them to finish very high after being out so long, not to mention being new to seniors. I just hope they have two good skates and score decently.

 

[clairecloutier]

Here's an article on Winter Deardorff/Mikhail Johnson, new U.S. junior mirror team:

Junior Pair Deardorff and Johnson Gelling as a Mirror Team Ahead of U.S. Championships Debut - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

In early June of 2019, Mikhail Johnson had a weekend that changed his life.

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

 

[beckab81]

Omg check out Ashley’s Insta stories....

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She’s got Nina Mozer in the background while Timothy is hamming it up. I’m so curious about Nina. I think she would be a heck of a lot of fun. I would love to shoot some whiskey with her

I saw that, and realized that means that Mozer is going to Nationals with C/LD instead of Euro's with T/M - kind of surprised by that choice! It does provide a little more window into how involved she has been with them though.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

^^^ That was my thought too. And is she no longer with D-M&G?

 

[shan]

I saw that, and realized that means that Mozer is going to Nationals with C/LD instead of Euro's with T/M - kind of surprised by that choice! It does provide a little more window into how involved she has been with them though.

I thought Tarosova/Morozov were now with Zoueva, unless they're with Mozer part time.

 

[jmtfti]

T/M have Marina and Max Trankov with them at Euros, who I'd guess are their primary coaching options at this point.

 

[olympic]

My dream would be for SK/K and CG/L to put it together this week and finish 1-2, and for C/J to show us a move to the next level of elite skating with clean SBS jumps and overall confidence. But honestly, I would be happy with a clean competition from all and let the chips fall where they may

 

[pairskatingfan]

My dream would be for SK/K and CG/L to put it together this week and finish 1-2, and for C/J to show us a move to the next level of elite skating with clean SBS jumps and overall confidence. But honestly, I would be happy with a clean competition from all and let the chips fall where they may

Of course a clean competition from all would be fantastic! Sometimes these pairs just happen to hold it together, let’s see what happens this year, we’ve seen relatively good skates from almost all the pairs this year so far

 

[Spiralgraph]

I'll be cheering For Ashley Cain-Gribble/Timothy Leduc and Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea. If they go 1 2 in any order I'll be thrilled. But I don't want to see any disasters from anybody. I want US teams as a whole to be more competitive.
And I'll pay attention to those less well known skaters just in case they have the skate of their lives in a good way.

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

Start orders are up!

I forgot this season about Laiken and Keenan...

Was it their ages that we didnt see enough of them??? Aged out of juniors but not enough ISU points to go nowhere?

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

The Knierims were the best they have ever been. Ever. That was stunning!

Any idea yet why CG / L got no credit for the death spiral?

I have to say clair de lune on Tarah and Danny was amazing!

 

[Spiralgraph]

Over at GS Jackie Wang's tweet said Tim re positioned his pivot within the first revolution of the DS. So no points.

 

[LilJen]

Here's an article on Winter Deardorff/Mikhail Johnson, new U.S. junior mirror team:

Junior Pair Deardorff and Johnson Gelling as a Mirror Team Ahead of U.S. Championships Debut - U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

In early June of 2019, Mikhail Johnson had a weekend that changed his life.

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

I thought Winter Deardorff (still one of the best skating names ever) had competed in senior pairs before. She's allowed to go back to competing at the junior level??

 

[Carolla5501]

I thought Winter Deardorff (still one of the best skating names ever) had competed in senior pairs before. She's allowed to go back to competing at the junior level??

Well considering she competed at the junior level it appears she’s allowed to go back

 

[svfate]

I thought Winter Deardorff (still one of the best skating names ever) had competed in senior pairs before. She's allowed to go back to competing at the junior level??

As long as the new partner has not competed at the senior level, the skater can move back down a level with the new partnership.

 

[aftershocks]

The scoring was all over the place! What the heck.

Lu/Mitrofanov completed their elements well, but they don't have great presentation skills. I thought 65 was somewhat high for L/M compared to the 61 for Serafini/Tran, since at least S/F have a more interesting connection and expressiveness. S/F got low-balled skating first in the first group. By not giving S/F a better score, it seems that Pfund/Santillan and Digerness/Neudecker ended up getting stuck behind S/F after their own very good performances that arguably should have been scored higher.

And then Haven & Brandon. Sigh... While I know they tend to have trouble with the jumps, they were really dumped on in the scoring for a team of their quality and talent. Yes, Haven doubled her jumping pass and fell on the first throw. That throw had such height and distance, she seemed to lose control of it with so much air time. But otherwise that's a quality throw. Apparently, Brandon had too much adrenaline pumping. Still, H&B's throws and lifts are top-notch quality, so why dis them so heavily? It's important to skate clean, but let's face it that H&B have much more overall quality and talent as a team than both S/F and L/M. Haven/Brandon also won two medals on the GP and nearly made the GPF. As a quality team, they are on a par with the top U.S. teams and should not have been placed behind S/F and L/M for those two tech mistakes if the rest of their overall skills are taken into account.

It's great for the Knierims pulling through to skate clean. They seemed slightly nervous during the practices. But they picked it up for the sp. Chris was a bit wonky in the air but cat-like on the landing. I hope they can continue to pull off clean programs. They made it through this sp with flying colors. But I didn't feel like it was slam dunk perfection. They struck me as cautious and pacing themselves. Fortunately, they made it through. I'm sure it was a huge relief and they deserved the audience response. Still, I'm skeptical about them receiving 77 for that performance, especially in comparison to the marks given to other teams. It is definitely home-cooking, as they wouldn't get that kind of score internationally unless they proved they could be clean more often than not.

Yes, at their best, the Knierims are probably the U.S.'s best team in terms of power and skill set. Still, H&B also have world quality lifts, excellent 3-twist, great death-spiral and usually excellent throws, in addition to a boffo fp this season. I think that Ashley/Timothy have proven their ability and competitive grit, despite their hiccoughs on the GP. IMO, A&T were rather heavily penalized for Ash's two-foot landing on the throw. I thought A&T should have at least scored 70 or 71. It seemed like their sbs jumps were spot-on. But with that low score, I wonder if they were dinked for a UR? ETA: Okay, I see that A&T got no credit for their death spiral. That's a pretty harsh call by the tech panel, IMHO.

Kayne/O'Shea's new sp really suits them, and they can deliver when they are on. Still, Tara's skating skills need improvement, and their 3-twist is not as good as the Knierims', H&B's, and Calalang/Johnson's. By giving the Knierims a score in the sp out the wazoo, it appears as if the judges very much want to send the Knierims to Worlds. Alexa & Chris have a huge lead which should give them confidence for the fp. Can A&C continue to be consistent?

I would have had H&B just behind L/M by percentage points; the Knierims no higher than 75; K/O at about 71, and Ash/Tim at 70. Also Serafini/Tran at 63 which would mean more room fairly for P/S at 61 or 62 and D/N at 59.

 

[aftershocks]

I thought Winter Deardorff (still one of the best skating names ever) had competed in senior pairs before. She's allowed to go back to competing at the junior level??

Winter competed with Max Settlage in seniors, which was great experience for her. She's obviously still age-eligible for juniors and she now has a partner closer to her age. It's appropriate and necessary for them to develop their talent as a team in juniors.

Winter and Mikhail placed second at the U.S. Junior Pairs challenge event. They nearly pulled out silver again at Nationals, but Smirnova/Siianytsia performed a stellar fp and edged Winter/Mikhail for silver. As a newly formed mirror pair, Winter & Mikhail looked great together right away, and they've been progressing well ever since they teamed up.

Thanks for linking the article on Winter/Mikhail. I think the word 'gel' in describing pairs teams is so overused. I coined it on FSU many years ago and the usage apparently took off. Now, I try to find other ways of describing how newly formed pairs teams meld together. The overuse of 'gel' 'gelling,' can be grating.

I’m rooting for D/F and C/L to be top 2 but my biggest hope is that the judging is actually fair!

No dice on all counts, unfortunately.

 

[aftershocks]

The Operative word is Automatically. I think it's out of bounds to think K/O or C/J wouldn't go.

As I said, it's nearly impossible to predict what might happen in figure skating. And the judging, as we know, is a whole 'nother can of wriggly, frustrating worms... I personally made no comment about either K/O or C/J in reference to your above post, but since you bring it up...

Despite their talent, I'd be surprised to see both C/J and K/O sent to Worlds together this year. There are other veteran teams, i.e., the Knierms, Ash/Timothy and even D/F who probably have more BOW than C/J and K/O. I love C/J but they could benefit from more seasoning and build toward Worlds for another season. When K/O are on, they are quite good, but they still need improvement in speed, power and SS.

(They proved that by putting an injured team who had a HORRID Nationals and poor international season last year on the alternate list LOL!)

I'd say with their 77 sp score this season it's proof that at bottom, U.S. judges really love the Knierims and recognize they have the overall best power and talent if they can combine those attributes with consistency and confidence.

Depending on what happens in the fp, U.S. fed may or may not make a final decision on World selection based on what happens at 4CCs, as Canada is doing.

 

[sk8nlizard]

The scoring was all over the place! What the heck.

So first, the scoring really wasn’t all over the place. I was in the arena and placed every single team correctly before the results came up. Seeing the pairs in person, Ashley and Tim and Alexa and Chris were clearly better than everyone else. They were faster, their skating had more amplitude, better use of upper body, etc.
H/B have a beautiful twist. However, she looked stressed about the sal in warm up. Once she feel on the throw, the energy left them. They also don’t skate as fast as the first two pairs I mentioned.
T/D had a great skate and this program really suits them. However, their twist is very small and they aren’t super fast either. Overall, it was actually a very well skated event!

 

[AngieNikodinovLove (ANL)]

What’s all the fuss about, as a neutral Judge I’d have the Knierims in first place and probably at 80 points. That was nothing short of an Olympic caliber program.

If Tim repositioned his pivot on the first revolution of the death spiral then I guess no credit means no credit. The storm is coming is my least favorite short program of theirs. And the Knierims is my favorite short program of theirs

D/F had mistakes galore so I probably have them where they are now as well.

I’ll be interested in the free skate because each one can do really well and each one could trainwreck

My surprise of the night besides the Knieriem’s was Tarah and Danny because they are not one of my favorites but they earned my respect with that program

 

[semogal]

My take away from Nationals is that the quality of US Pairs skating is on the rise. Many clean programs & more jumping passes landed. Newer teams are starting to gel. I haven’t been this excited by pairs in years. Looking forward to the drama of the free

 

[Wyliefan]

Start orders are up!

I forgot this season about Laiken and Keenan...

Was it their ages that we didnt see enough of them??? Aged out of juniors but not enough ISU points to go nowhere?

Laiken spent all season recovering from an injury.

 

[Spiralgraph]

I agree with your assessment, ANL the Knierims were clearly the best of the evening. I was thrilled with Tarah and Danny's SP. IMO she has improved her skating skills and Clair de Lune shows them to their best advantage.
For C-G/L it was a solid performance but the death spiral invalidation and that two footed throw cost them second place.
As for D/F, they might be the most inconsistent of all our pairs (and that's saying something.)

I'll end this by saying the LP will be very important. Any of the top teams could skate superbly or yes, they could bomb. Please, I don't want that. Let everybody skate well and where they end up so be it.

 

[CassAgain]

So first, the scoring really wasn’t all over the place. I was in the arena and placed every single
H/B have a beautiful twist. However, she looked stressed about the sal in warm up. Once she feel on the throw, the energy left them. They also don’t skate as fast as the first two pairs I mentioned.
T/D had a great skate and this program really suits them. However, their twist is very small and they aren’t super fast either. Overall, it was actually a very well skated event!

This was apparent watching the stream as well--I really enjoy Haven and Brandon as skaters and as people, but skating right after Alexa and Chris did them no favors, and they had glaring mistakes. Tarah and Danny were absolutely lovely but Tarah's skills don't quite match Danny's, and it's not subtle.

I really enjoyed everyone and thought the scoring was accurate. I didn't notice Tim's mistake in real time, but it was obvious on the video.

 

[flyingsit]

I fully agree that the Knierims and C-G/L are, at their best, the only US teams that look like world top 10 teams -- their speed and presence are in a different category. D/F have the best lifts in the US but they do easier throws. And K/O just skate "small" and don't have nearly the impact of the others, but they are the most likely to hit their SBS jumps.