Junior Pairs Shuffle the Deck in Free Skate, Denney and Frazier Hold on for Victory

The Junior Pairs Championship was a turbulent affair, with a scoring error in the Short Program and the top four pairs in the short all changing place in the Free Skate. Haven Denney & Brandon Frazier had a strong skate in the Short program, placing first with a 1.99 point margin of victory.  Their performance to music from "Chicago" was well skated with decent speed and enthusiasm.  Their best element was a big double twist and a nicely executed group four lift with changes of position and a cartwheel set down.  Their side-by-side double Lutzes were landed with decent unison, but the team received and edge call on the element.  The team's components spanned a wide range of opinion, from a low of 5.00 to a high of 7.00. In the Free Skate, Denney & Frazier dropped to second in the segment, skating to music from "Pearl Harbor," but held on to win the Gold. Their strongest elements were again the twist (this time a triple) and the group four lift.  They had a costly error, with a fall on throw triple loop, which denied them the lead in the long.  Their components again spanned a large range, from 5.25 to 7.00.  They trailed the leaders in the long by 1.30 points, but were helped by the second place team in the short dropping to fourth in the long, allowing them to capture the gold. On their performance Frazier said, "It was just like home, training, we went out there and it just felt like another long program to do. It felt like another day at the office."  Denney added, "I agree, it felt like another run-through back at home and we felt really comfortable and confident with our skating." On preparing for the championships, and their feelings on winning Frazier said, "Truthfully, the feeling right now is that I’m just happy we stuck with the plan we had for the last month that Dalilah made for us and we trained it and we trained it even though we had some bad days and some good days, no matter what, Dalilah stuck with us and we kept with the plan and she led us in the right direction and we just let our bodies take over and it kind of did it itself. So it feels good to see our progress." Haven Denney is the younger sister of Cadee Denney who was senior Pair Champions but never Junior.  Haven said, "Well, she has a senior title (laughs), but I think there’s still more room for improvement from the program that we did today and I’m actually just looking forward to going to Junior Worlds to make it better. It just feels really great right now, this moment." Britney Simpson & Matthew Blackmer and won the Free Skate, but a third place finish in the Short Program weighed them down and the team finished second overall. In the short the team placed third, primarily due to a lower base value of the elements attempted and an edge call on side-by-side double Lutz.  The team was down in TES compared to the top two teams in the short, but their PCS was second best with an average score of 5.84. In the Free Skate, Simpson & Blackmer gave a stronger performance with a clean program that received only one negative (-1) GoE among all their elements.  Their component marks also came up compared to the short, averaging 6.34. Sounding very much like their training mates, Simpson said, "For us, all of us, it felt just like home and we skated all that we could do and we are really happy that we came out here and we did all that we could do with confidence."  And from Blackmer, "We just did another run-through like we would have at home and we were happy that it was clean so we were pleased with our performance." On his first experience at U.S. Nationals, Blackmer said, "So far it has been pretty fun. I have clearly had a good experience to be up here. My dad was teasing me that the only nationals I had ever been to was baby junior nationals and you got third so try and get your medal count going so it was kind of funny to do it here, especially on this sheet of ice. I am kind of excited to be done and I can really enjoy nationals now." The team skated to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in the Short and "Titanic" in the long. The bronze medal was won by  Kylie Duarte & Colin Grafton who placed fourth in the Short Program and third in the Free Skate.   The team skated a pretty program to  the "Meditation" from Thais, though the performance could have used a greater sense of power in their skating.  A late catch on their opening double twist resulted in six negative GoEs, while their components averaged just under six. In the Free Skate, the team gave a stronger performance in terms of components and overall skating but had some rough spots in three elements.  Skating to music from "Dr. Zhivago," the team was scored down on a triple toe lop - double toe loop jump combination due the the quality of his landing, on triple Salchow due to the quality of her landing, and on throw triple Salchow due to a two-footed landing.  Their components were a bit higher in the long compared to the short, averaging just over six. On their performance Duarte said, "Like Britney said, it felt like another day at home, especially with them in our warm-up group like we were training with everyone."  And if that answer sounds just like the other teams that is because all three teams are training mates and apparently all got the exact same script in their media training! Jessica Noelle Calalang & Zack Sidu placed fourth overall with a second place finish in the short and a fourth place finish in the long.  The team gave a strong performance to "Elite Syncopations" by Scott Joplin in the short, but ran into trouble on three elements in the long, with falls on side-by-side doubel Axels and throw triple Lutz.  Throw triple Salchow also had a poor landing, and was scored will all -2s.  In the long they skated to music from "Miss Saigon." Data Error Strikes Junior Pairs Short Program Results Revised. A scoring error confused the results of the Junior Pairs Short Program.  The leaders announced in the arena and broadcast through the live scoring on the internet were not correct -- which is why the events are always introduced with the caveat that the results are not official until verified. During the Short Program, Simpson & Blackmer's first element was entered as the impossible element 3LoTh+1A+3F.  This was caught and corrected after the event was over and moved the team from unofficial first to official third in the short.  A similar error was made on the first element for Duarte & Grafton, which was originally reported as 2FTw1+1S. Between the technical panel, the two accountants and the referee these two entry errors still made it into the scoring and out onto the internet before they were caught and corrected after the event.  The problem was explained to the competitors before the draw for the Free Skating. The the scoring hardware used at Nationals includes both primary and backup touch screens for both the judges and the data entry operator.  The backup screens are always enabled during events so that the judges and data entry operator can switch from the primary screens to the backup screens instantaneously.  For the two teams in the Junior Pairs event, the erroneous data was entered through the backup screen.