2006

U.S. Nationals

Junior Pairs

by Martha Kimball and Dawn Morgan

Bianca Butler, 16, and Joseph Jacobsen, 18, of the All Year FSC, finished the Short Program event in first place with an elegant rendition of a classic pas de deux from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, performing in gossamer costumes of seafoam and teal. ("I call them green," smiled Meekins.)

The Californians, trained by US champions and three-time world medalists Jenni Meno and Todd Sand, executed a long, high throw double loop and demonstrated the best speed, energy, and synchronization of the day. The audience roared at the commanding press lift in which Jacobsen flowed across the ice with great speed and control while Butler maintained a beautifully stretched open star position.

The duo, who finished sixth at the 2005 Junior Grand prix final, looked amazingly happy during their program. Said Jacobsen, "We love competition. I love kind of showing off a bit. That’s where I feel comfortable. We had our friends out there. It was a lot of fun."

"I thought they skated great," assessed coach Meno. "They couldn’t have skated better. We try to really focus on each element, making each element important, and they really did that today. I told them to have fun out there, and that’s the thing. When you watched them, it looked like they had a great time."

The pewter medalists at the 2005 Junior Grand Prix Final favor the new CoP system that allows them to focus on the quality of every element and strive for the pluses in the mathematical scheme. Their composite score for the Short Program event was 49.92.

Numerically close behind in second place with a total of 49.89 were Kendra Moyle, 15, and Andy Seitz, 20, a new team who train in Michigan. They have skated together for ten months, following a USFS online partner search and a tryout that immediately clicked.

A techno version of "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" highlighted the playfulness in Moyle & Seitz’s personalities that won over both judges and audience alike. Royal blue and DayGlo lime costumes solidified the upbeat mood. The team’s throw triple loop was huge, which is why Moyle slightly bobbled the landing.

Said Seitz, "I think we felt really comfortable on the ice today. The only thing we had a small issue with was the throw. I think it was too big, really."

Moyle agreed. "It was a big one, and I expected the ice to come a little sooner, so I put my hand down."

On the plus side of the ledger, the press lift featured multiple variations, and the death spiral flowed from an intricate entrance: Seitz’s spread eagle and Moyle’s catch-foot arabesque. Like the first-placed team, this one demonstrated good synchronization, speed, and stretch.

"I just think that we were both really ready for this competition," said Moyle. "We’ve been ready for it for a while, and that helped out a lot."

Julia Vlassov, 15, and Drew Meekins, 20, who train in Walpole, MA, executed the only throw triple loop among the top contenders, but it was marred by her two-footed turnout. "I did a little skid," Vlassov explained.

The duo, dressed in black costumes with pink lines and rhinestones that formed what some saw as a lightning-bolt design, exhibited notable entrances into their death spiral and split double twist. The original and visually appealing turning entrance into the twist may have cost the couple some height in the throw.

Second in last year’s Junior event, the pair also placed second at the 2005 Junior Grand Prix Final. Said Vlassov, "It’s been a great experience to go overseas and really see what people around the world are doing."

Meekins added, "It gives us more confidence coming into Nationals that we’ve proven ourselves on an international level."

Overall, Meekins’s assessment of the day’s work, which produced a score of 49.86, a mere .03 out of second place, was, "It could have had a little bit more power, but we’re happy overall with where we are now and looking forward to the long program."

by Martha Kimball

Kendra Moyle and Andy Seitz, second in the Short Program event, presented the best Free Skate to win the gold medal with a total score of 97.92 for the Free and 147.81 overall.

The top team had faltered badly, and the fifth-placed duo from an earlier warm-up group was still holding onto the lead when the Michigan team took the ice with a wide-open door through which to skate.

However, Moyle said that she and her partner didn’t realize the opportunity that beckoned. "No, not at all…. We weren’t really thinking about placing. We just wanted to skate a good program. We’ve been working all year for this."

Moyle & Seitz, in burgundy trimmed with hot pink for their "Jealousy" tango, opened with a double twist followed by a double Axel – double toe sequence, a throw triple loop, a one-hand tuck overhead, double flips, a forward inside death spiral, a throw triple Salchow, a step-overhead combination lift, a combination spin (camel – sit – upright – sit – upright), spirals, a star combination lift, footwork, and a final pair spin.

Seitz said of the consistently strong and energetic performance that accrued more than five points over its nearest challenger, "I don’t think we really ever let our guards down. After the second throw triple, I think we thought we could relax a little bit more, but we didn’t want to let our guards down totally."

There came a point in the footwork section when the music changed to a peppier rhythm and the audience started to clap along, seemingly confident that it was applauding the winners.

Moyle revealed happily, "It felt like the audience was with us, behind our program, for the whole thing."

The team has been training side-by-side triples but decided that it wasn’t worth the risk to incorporate them in this year’s Nationals.

Bridget Namiotka, 15, and John Coughlin, 20, took an early lead after skating second in the third of four warm-up groups. Coughlin’s lifetime association with Kansas City, MO, made the team something of a hometown favorite, and the audience embraced them heartily. The duo who represent Silver Blades FSC Inc. of Greater Kansas City were pleased with their free skate but expected to drop when the favorites came onto the scene.

Said Coughlin of the silver medal, "It’s a lot more than we expected after we were done, but we’ll certainly take it. I thought we were going to hang in fifth place. At the beginning of our season, we were hoping. That’s the goal that we listed on usfigureskating.com: to make the top five at Nationals."

When the final four performed, Pflumm & Pottenger held onto their fourth-place position, just as Vlassov & Meekins held onto third. But frontrunners Butler & Jacobsen slid all the way down to seventh in the Free, fifth overall, when their beautiful and mature Warsaw Concerto program, skated in the most elegantly understated costumes of the night, midnight blue from neck to toe, unraveled. Butler fell on the throw triple Salchow and two-footed the throw double loop. Jacobsen stumbled on his double loop and fell outright on his double flip. That left Namiotka and Coughlin second at the end of the day with 92.47 points for the Free Skate and 138.92 overall.

The team that trains at the University of Delaware performed in mottled tan costumes to music from The Prince of Egypt. They opened with a soaring lift in which Namiotka looked relaxed and ladylike. The overhead featured a lasso takeoff into a carry with level-enhancing crossovers.

Namiotka explained, "You have to hold it for five seconds before and after the crossovers, and we’ve always gotten like 4.75 seconds, and so we’ve always gotten level three. We tried so hard to get five seconds. I guess we did."

The next element was a throw double Axel. Namiotka fell. "I think I was a little nervous. [The fall] almost loosened me up a little. I was putting so much stress on certain elements [rather than] on the whole program."

After the fall came a camel – sit spin combination; a star lift with three changes of position; a throw triple Salchow; a triple twist; a double Lutz – hop – double toe sequence; a throw double loop; circular footwork; a Group 5 one-arm overhead lift; spirals; a pair spin; and a forward inside death spiral.

"You have to choreograph those programs with a calculator in your hand," Coughlin said wryly, "to make sure you’re going to be competitive."

Surely the exceptional crowd reaction enhanced the team’s experience and potentially its performance level.

Said Namiotka, "It makes me feel much more relaxed. When they’re still happy even when you mess up… I love it."

Coughlin added, "It takes the pressure off, knowing that everyone’s hoping that you do well.… It gives you a little extra energy at the end of the program when you’re tired."

Julia Vlassov and Drew Meekins, performing to cuts from the soundtrack of the film Paycheck in grape-colored costumes with squiggly diagonal sequined patterns in blue – the outfits were design in St. Petersburg, Russia – opened fast to double flips, followed by a lasso-entry overhead lift. Vlassov then fell on a throw triple loop.

"I felt really good in the air," she said, "and I guess I just was a little bit too overconfident on the landing and just kind of fell off my toe. It was an unfortunate fall because I normally land it, but I’m happy that we got through the program without any major mistakes after that…. I tried to forget about it because obviously the program goes on. You can’t get stuck on one element. You think positive and life goes on."

Meekins volunteered, "That’s an additional skill, to be able to forget mistakes and push the program. That was harder to do when we first started skating: to keep presenting and keep skating nicely after a mistake. I think we did a good job…. When we have a mistake, we try to calm each other down."

Next came an overhead lift; a double twist; a double Lutz – double toe sequence; side by side spins, flying camel to back sit (off synch coming out); spirals; a throw triple Salchow; a pair spin; a star combination lift; and then a point-accruing back outside death spiral, the only one of the event.

Vlassov & Meekins earned the bronze medal with 88.99 for the Free Skate, 138.85 overall, just .07 out of second place.