Nathan Chen Wins Free Skate, Captures Junior Men's Title

After a virtual tie in the Short Program where 0.05 points separated Nathan Chen and Timothy Dolensky, Chen moved ahead in the Free Skate to win the Junior Men's event at the 2012 U.S. National Championships. Chen gave a unique performance to music from "Wall-E" which included intricate movements with a quirky character.  He received one 7.00 for his interpretation, but overall his components slightly trailed Dolensky, while his TES was best of the group. He landed double Axel, triple flip-triple toe loop and triple Lutz.  The Lutz received marks of -2 through +2.  Go figure.  His level 4 flying sit spin also had five negative GoEs. In the Free Skate, performed to selections from "The Godfather" Chen landed six triples and a double Axel, with only one GoE of -1 for all the elements total.  His opening triple-triple combination was light and secure as were all his jumps, a far cry from a few weeks ago in training when he seemed to be struggling.  But in this performance there was no hint of that. "It was really fun,' he said. "I had a good time out there and I thought it was one of my better skates."  About his Free Skating music he said, "When I was much, much younger, I saw Evgeni Plushenko skate to "The Godfather" and I’ve always wanted to skate to that music so this year I figured I might was well give it a try." In both the short and long Chen strikes memorable closing poses and for his choice for the long he said, "I’ve been watching lots of old skating phenomenons the past two days and I just noticed how much power and emotion and energy they put into their performances and I just wanted to try to see if I could have that kind of energy, so I tried to do it out there."  His component scores averaged 6.14.  Chen receive a full standing ovation from the audience for his long, the first of the Championships. Chen has trained part time at Lake Arrowhead, CA for the past few years, and indicated he was moving there full time for next season.  About the facility he said, "At Lake Arrowhead, the training facilities are really nice. It’s way high up so it’s really good for stamina and then everybody there is very seriously into training so I see people doing triples and quads all the time so it motivates me a little bit." Timothy Dolenski also landed a triple-triple combination in his Short Program, skating to music of his own composition which he calls "Windfall."  In addition to the triple-triple he also landed triple Lutz and double Axel. The Lutz received GoEs from -3 through +1.  Go figure. In the Free Skate Dolenski placed third, attempting seven triples, only one of which was scored slightly negative, a triple Salchow with two -1s.  He had the second best TES, but third best PCS.  "I really had a good time today," he said.  "It was so much fun and I was so happy with my skate today."  Asked about Chen's skate he said, "I didn’t see Nathan’s performance because he was right after me. I was just glad with how I skated and however it went was however it went." On the possibility of being selected for Junior Worlds he said, "That will be absolutely amazing if I get picked for Junior Worlds. I would be so excited to do that and I would look forward to that immensely." Dolenski is one of a small number of skaters who have skated to their own music.  Whetehr he would do that again in the future he said, "I’ve thought about that. I don’t know we’ll see. I’ll have to see if I have any inspiration to write anything else because it did turn out really well and I’ll have to talk to my coaches and see for not next year. But if not next year, I probably will think about doing it again in the future." Philip Warren moved up from fifth in the Short Program to second in the Free Skate to place third overall.  Skating to "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix, Warren had one costly error in the short when he doubled a triple Lutz attempt.  It was a costly mistake the knocked him down two place. Warren came back strong in the Free Skate, where he attempted seven triples, five of which were clean.  He put his hand down on triple Lutz - double toe loop, and had an edge call on triple flip.  It was en energetic performance, with good characterization, but overall a bit sloppy,  His components reflected this, wich an average component score of 6.04, with his Interpretation being the highest of the group. On his experience at Nationals he said, "First, I’d like to thank the city of San Jose and everybody here for giving us this arena. It’s really nice. I had a great time showing my programs to all of you and I hope you all did [enjoy them]."  He added later, "Mostly I skate for the audience. I skate for the judges, but I think I do it mostly for the fans. My first coach Adam Dewewy inspired me to actually love the sport and love what I do and have a great time doing it." About the quality of the group he said, "I watched Nathan’s program and he’s a strong skater. He’s very consistent, but all four of us skated probably one of our better performances this season, so I’m just happy for everybody." The fourth place medallist was Harrison Choate, who moved up from tenth place in the short, over 15 points 18 points back, to place fourth in the Free Skate.  His Free Skate performance to "La Strada" was very well done and a crowd pleaser. An honorable mention goes to Jay Yostanto who landed two clean triple Axels.  The jumps however seemed to consume all his strength and the program deteriorated a third of the way into the performance. And a bit of event trivia.  Chatting after the event with my neighbor Rafael Arutyunyan, who now works with Chen, he told me this was his second Junior National Champion.  His first champion, he said, was the 1980 Russian Junior National Champion.  At the time he was a new coach 22 years in age, and with Junior Worlds being in Canada that year and so young, he could not get permission from Soviet authorities to travel to Junior Worlds.  His skater was put on by the coach of the second Russian boy who went to Junior Worlds that year.  Now, 32 years later he has his second Junior Men's Champion.