Upstarts and Drama at U.S. Nationals

Nathan Chen breaks records with his quads; Karen Chen stuns the ladies field; returning pairs team wins; Shibutanis hold on to their title.

The week of U.S. Nationals in Kansas City got off to a dramatic start, with the president of U.S. Figure Skating saying the Russians should be banned from next year’s Olympics. The final hours of the competition saw the news break of a major coaching breakup in the ladies. In between, however, the drama was on the ice. It included some accomplishments to remember in the men’s competition, a shock win in the ladies, comeback triumph in the pairs, and both good and bad programs in the dance. With four medals handed out rather than the usual three, a holdover from the qualification competitions, there were plenty of skaters winning things. It all culminated in the naming of the U.S. teams to the Four Continents, World Junior, and World Championships.

Men

Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

The men’s competition was a win for the young. Especially for Nathan Chen, who had his best competition yet. He did have to hold on to some of the seven quadruple jumps he did throughout the competition, but he pulled off every last one of them. This included quadruple lutz-triple toe loop jump combinations and solo quad flips in both programs. In the long program, it also included a solo quad salchow, and a quad toe both solo and in combination with two double jumps. This made him the first man to land five quads in a free skate at Nationals. He also just about managed everything else in his programs too. Naturally, he won, becoming at 17 the youngest men’s champion since 1966.

Even younger was Vincent Zhou, the silver medalist. He only did one kind of quad: the quad salchow. He first landed it in a more or less clean short. In the free he pulled it off both solo and with a triple toe. He also messed up his first triple lutz and accidentally made his second one illegal. But all in all, he did more than enough for silver when none of his elders proved able to keep up with him. Initially one of them, Ross Miner, edged him out with a quadless but lovely and lively short. But Miner struggled in his free, underrotating a quad salchow attempt of his own, fumbling one triple axel completely and falling on another, and doubling both the triples in his three-jump. Eighth in the segment, he dropped to fifth.

Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

It was instead the guy out-presenting Zhou to the same short program music who came the closest. Due to his injured leg, Jason Brown did not attempt any quads in Kansas City. Unfortunately, in his short he underrotated his solo triple, and went down on a triple axel the technical panel downgraded to a double. He came back with long program which was hands down the most beautiful thing on the ice that night. His brilliant expressiveness remained unaffected, and his watered-down content was mostly done elegantly. But even then he too doubled out his three-jump, which left him with an illegal double jump. He could only almost match Zhou in the free skate score as he pulled up to third.

Grant Hochstein repeated as pewter medalist. He didn’t have the best start, when he failed to do the planned quad combination in his short, though he improvised a combination to stay in it. It went wrong in his long program too, though there he got a double toe onto his second quad toe instead. He too accidentally did an illegal lutz, but no other major errors meant he had no problem getting onto the podium. The last skater who could’ve contended for it, Max Aaron, was taken out of it completely by a terrible short. His fifth-place free featured him failing to do his opening quad salchow combination, landing the solo quad salchow, tripling the intended quad toe, mostly landing his triples, and finally making a crazy last-ditch quad salchow combination attempt which didn’t come off. It got him up to ninth.

The junior men’s competition had two men doing so much more technical content than the rest of the field, they towered above it, even when they both fell twice in their long programs. When he lost his combination to a fall in the short, Alexei Krasnozhon was initially behind Camden Pulkinen. But when his long program had two triple axels to Pulkinen’s one and all together a lot more technical content, he had no trouble coming back to win big. He went for his quad loop as well, but fell and saw it fully downgraded. Although they both had falls in the short, Ryan Dunk won bronze by holding on to enough of his jumps in his long, and Eric Sjoberg won pewter by making the cleaner parts of his look good.

Ladies

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Ashley Wagner may be sick of being asked about her age, but this competition definitely became a case of old versus young when he came down to her and seventeen year old Karen Chen. Chen was not somebody anyone had predicted to win. But she first got the highest score even given to a senior lady at U.S. Nationals with a stunning performance, including a triple lutz-triple toe. Wagner was two points behind in third. She attacked her short program and nailed her triple flip-triple toe, but got carried away on a wild axel. Wagner herself expressed surprised afterwards that the technically panel ratified the latter.

She rotated most of her jumps, all in all, but it was one underrotation in her long program which proved Wagner’s undoing. She also had a couple of smaller flubs at the end of the program, but she would have survived them had that she rotated that program’s triple flip-triple toe. But she didn’t. Meanwhile, Karen Chen managed her triple lutz-triple toe again, and most of everything else. She did double one jump, but she still did enough. She won the segment by about half a point, and her first national title, leaving Wagner with the silver.

Initially Mirai Nagasu came in second between them. She too rotated everything in a sound short program that included a triple flip-triple toe. She landed that triple-triple again in the free. But then she went down on a lutz, and after that she started to struggle. She ultimately underrotated two triple jumps, and two doubles. It cost her a spot on the World team, as she tumbled to fourth behind Mariah Bell. Bell’s main problem was with her triple lutz-triple toe. Underrotating it and falling on it in the short left her in sixth. She opened her free stumbling on it and her loop. But after that inauspicious opening, she absolutely nailed the rest of her long program to pull up to bronze, and the final spot on the World team.

In fifth, Caroline Zhang had a bit of a resurgence. She landed everything in both her programs, including a pair of triple loop-triple loop combinations. She didn’t have enough to really contend for the medals, but she got a standing ovation. Below her, in sixth, Gracie Gold ended a painful season early and badly. She did manage her triple lutz-triple toe in both her programs. But in the short she doubled her flip, and in the free, she didn’t have a clean jumping pass after that opening combination.

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The next day, her high-profile coach, Frank Carroll, decided to bail on her. He apparently announced it before notifying her. The partnership apparently won’t end instantly, because they have legal issues to work out. Once that’s done, no one knows what Gold will do next, including herself.

She wasn’t the only one done in by singles in the free skate. Rising junior Tessa Hong, too young to compete at Worlds, was in fourth after the short with a lovely program, albeit one with an underrotated triple lutz-triple toe. But in her free, two jumps singled, and another doubled and then fully downgraded, caused her to drop down to tenth. It almost certainly cost her a trip to Junior Worlds. Faring still worse was the third medalist from the Grand Prix, Courtney Hicks. She actually went for the harder triple flip-triple loop, as this happened to cause less stress to her injured knee. But she landed it in neither program, and a disaster of a short ultimately left her unable to get higher overall than twelfth.

The junior competition also abounded with triple-triples, though they were mostly easier ones. The most difficult one, a triple lutz-triple toe, was landed by Kaitlyn Nguyen in the short. Lower presentation scores left her in third after the short, narrowly behind Emma Ma, who had the highest presentation scores and a clean but triple-triple-less short, and Starr Andrews, who had a clean short with a triple toe-triple toe. But Nguyen nailed most of her free, including a triple lutz-loop-triple salchow, though she did have one underrotation. It was enough for her to shoot ahead of the others for the title.

Andrews was good through most of her long, but fell apart late. She was third in the segment, but managed to stay second overall. Ma fared worse, failing to rotate any of her triple jumps and falling late. Fifth in the segment, she settled for pewter behind Ashley Lin. Lin’s triple toe-triple toe attempted in the short had suffered a full downgrade, leaving her in fifth. But she pulled up with a second-place free not unlike Nguyen’s. It even had a similar three-jump, though also another full downgrade.

Pairs

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Withdrawals continued to plague the pairs competition even after it began. Two teams pulled out after the short, including reigning champions Tarah Kayne & Danny O’Shea. A bad fall on a throw flip left her with a concussion, and they even said immediately they wouldn’t petition for inclusion on the World team. Instead, she will go in immediately for the knee surgery they’ve been delaying. They probably wouldn’t have been granted it anyway, since another team did petition, and meanwhile they were down in fifth when they withdrew.

The standings by then held more than one surprise, including the leaders. Ashley Cain & Timothy LeDuc came here with a lot of buzz. But they exceeded expectations when they won the short with a largely knockout performance, complete with clean side by side triple loops and a throw triple flip, the hardest pair of jump elements anyone even attempted. Their story, including his two year retirement and her not skating pairs for a while, was remarkable enough. But an even more remarkable one nearly stole second. A decade and a half after she retired from singles, Deanna Stellato-Dudek & Nathan Batholomay skated a very good short program of slightly easier elements, and found themselves in third, less than half a point behind Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier.

Denney & Frazier, themselves coming back after missing last season due to injury, had an underrotation in their salchows and a couple of other issues. For the one top pair from last year that made it through the entire competition, Marissa Castelli & Mervin Tran, it was a similar story. She went down on the salchows and two-footed the throw. They ended up in fourth, although they were less than a point behind Stellato-Dudek & Batholomay.

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All four teams made multiple mistakes in the free. This was partly because three of the teams went for ambitious elements. Quality of everything outside the jumps left Denney & Frazier and Castelli & Tran ahead. Denney & Frazier went for side by side triple salchow-double toe combations. They rotated the former this time, but she singled on the latter. She also singled side by side double axels, and stepped out of a throw. Castelli & Tran rotated none of their side by side jumps, went for a salchow combination but didn’t get the second jump, and suffered a two-footed throw lutz and a fall from him on their solo toes. Ultimately not falling granted Denney & Frazier the segment, and they found themselves left with their first national title.

Cain & LeDuc once again went for the most technical difficulty. They landed the triple loops again, but fell on the throw lutz, and, trying a double axel-loop-triple salchow combination, rotated none of the jumps involved. They slipped just behind the top two teams for third. Stellato-Dudek & Bartholomay attempted nothing harder than side by side solo salchows, but had errors on both side by sides and a fall on a throw loop. They ended up further behind in fourth.

The junior competition was a weak one. Even winners Nica Digerness & Danny Neudecker did only double side by sides, and had a fall in their short and two in their free. Their main advantage was in presentation scores. Silver medalists Elli Kopmar & Jonah Barrett were a bit cleaner, but failed to do the hard throws they’d planned. Bronze medalists Alexandria Hao & Austin Hale didn’t try any kind of triple elements at all. Pewter medalists Lindsay Weinstein & Jacob Simon went for a throw triple flip in the short, but none of their throws went well, and they had so much trouble in their free they had to hold onto their podium spot on the strength of their short.

Dance

Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Dance proved a close battle indeed between last year’s champions and those from the year before. Although in the short dance, neither got as high a technical tariff as Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue, who got straight level 4s. But Hubbell & Donohue didn’t quite skate clean, bumping into each other slightly at the end of their step sequence. Madison Chock & Evan Bates and Maia & Alex Shibutani both put away their shorts no problem, getting top execution marks for their step sequences. But Chock & Bates didn’t get level 4 on that, leaving them with the lowest tariff. Meanwhile the Shibutanis also maxed out their twizzles and got higher presentation scores to take the lead. Chock & Bates narrowly held on to second.

In the free dance, Chock & Bates were the only one of the three that had a completely smooth skate. The Shibutanis didn’t have anything that disrupted the beauty of their program, but they did have an extended lift, and also bump to the board from his skate at one point. Both teams got the same tariff and maxed out the possible scores of three elements. But Chock & Bates came closer to maxing out on their other elements, and so won the free. But they only won it by a point and a half, and the Shibutanis held on to repeat as champions.

Mandatory Credit: Gary Rohman-USA TODAY Sports

Hubbell & Donohue probably wouldn’t have achieved their goal of moving up from third anyway, but they lost all chance at it with a transitional fall from her and a brief error on their dance spin. She ended up with a cut knee. But at least it didn’t cost them their spot in the top three. Would-be pewter medalists Kaitlin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker weren’t so lucky. They had a sprinkling of tiny errors in their short dance, but this didn’t cost them fourth. Instead, a disastrous performance of their free dance involving a fall from her on the twizzles and them both going down on the straight-line lift did, an eighth-place score dropping them to fifth.

But pewter didn’t to go the team that won it last year either. Anastasia Cannuscio & Colin McManus were done in by the technical panel, which counted an opening transition move in their short dance as a valueless rotational lift, meaning their actual one was invalidated, which left them in ninth. They came back with a strong fifth-place free, but could only move up to sixth. Pewter instead went to Elliana Pogrebinsky & Alex Benoit, who skated two good, clean programs, and even matched the top two in the tariff in the free dance.

Until the final part of their free dance, last year’s junior national and world champions, Lorriane McNamara & Quinn Carpenter, were looking like they might beat their demons from the Junior Grand Prix. Not that they’d repeat, because Rachel & Michael Parsons were already just a little bit better. The Parsons’ free especially was pure magic. But McNamara & Carpenter were less than half a minute away from a strong silver, when he fell on their diagonal step sequence. It cost them dearly, sending them tumbling to third, below Christine Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko, who had skated two strong, steady expressive programs. Chloe Lewis & Logan Bye were another couple trying to rebound from fall difficulties. Though they remain firmly below the level of the top three, they skated well, and to a solid pewter.

View full results here.

ISU Championship Teams

After the ladies competition, officials reminded everyone they did not necessarily need to abide by the results in naming the teams. But there really was no justification for naming Gracie Gold, and so for the World Championships, they went with the top three in both ladies and dance. It was in the men they deviated from the results. Vincent Zhou himself said his focus was on the World Junior Championships. His coach suggested he could go to both, but the federation didn’t go for it, giving Jason Brown the second spot to Worlds alongside Nathan Chen instead. Alexa Scimeca Knierim & Chris Knierim petitioned for the team, and got on alongside Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier.

Initially they named the top three ladies to the Four Continents Championships too. But on Sunday Ashley Wagner decided not to go, and so Mirai Nagasu goes in her stead. Zhou and his coach apparently had no interest in this one, since he’s not even an alternate. Instead Chen and Brown are joined by Grant Hochstein. Ross Miner is first alternate, and will no doubt watch to see if Brown withdraws. The Knierims are currently on that team too, as are Denney & Frazier. But, rather shockingly, they snubbed Marissa Castelli & Mervin Tran, choosing to send Ashley Cain & Timothy LeDuc instead. But they are still first alternates, and the Knierims might not recover in time for this one. The top three in dance were named to the team and so far have all stayed there.

The U.S. has three men’s berths to the World Junior Championships this year. Zhou is joined by Alexei Krasnozhon, and by Andrew Torgashev, who came in eleventh in the senior men’s competition. Both ladies berths went to senior competitors, to Amber Glenn & Bradie Tennell, who finished eighth and ninth. Able to send two pairs, they chose Nica Digerness & Danny Neudecker with Chelsea Liu & Brian Johnson, who finished sixth in the senior field. For ice dance the U.S. has three berths, and, as they almost always do, they went with the top three teams from the junior competition.

Next: Top Skaters Put on Show at Canadian Nationals

View full announcement here, including all the alternates. The alternates lists do deviate from the results in various ways.