Second place went to Stephanie Kalesavich & Aaron Parchem who had six seconds, one-third place and two fourth place ordinals at this stage for their "El Conquistador" program. She landed a nice throw triple Salchow to open the program followed by their big double twist. They both put their hands down on their side-by-side triple Salchows and his spiral was uninspiring. They train at the Detroit Skating Club with Johnny Johns, Mitch Moyer and Jason Dungjen and their choreographer is Zuzanna Szwed.

Another Michigan team, Larisa Spielberg & Craig Joeright came back strong here after two seasons of struggling after injuries for the bronze medal. They skated with tango attitude to "Tango from Indochina" and now train in Rochester, Michigan with Sergey Petrovsky and Richard Callaghan. These two have been partners since 1996. She put her hand down on their side-by-side triple toe loops but their pairs spin included interesting positions with their legs entwined.

Fourth place after the short program went to Kathryn Orscher & Garrett Lucash who train in Connecticut with former World Champions, Vadim Naumov & Evgenia Shiskova. This team has been together since the summer of 2001 and skated to "Quidan" from Cirque de Soleil. They had a big throw triple Salchow and had clean side-by-side triple toe loops. They seemed cautious but got the job done tonight although their lift appeared to give Lucash some extra challenges before it went up successfully.

Rena Inoue & John Baldwin skated with good speed for their "Carmen" short program but they were hampered by Baldwin's miss on their side-by-side triple toe loops since he put his hand down to save the landing. Their pair spin includes her doing the layback position. Their spiral had some slight imperfections tonight, too. They are now in fifth place and must pull up if they hope to gain one of the three places on the world team for U.S. pairs for 2003 Worlds in Washington, DC.

The new team of Jennifer Don & Jonathon Hunt gave a solid performance with nice side-by-side triple toe loops and a big throw triple loop. Their lift that appeared sloppy likely cost them in the scoring of their "Freedom" short program. They train in Delaware with Ron Ludington, Jeff DiGregorio and Tracey Poletis. They now sit in sixth place.

Another new team, Marcy Hinzmann & Steve Hartsell gave a strong performance to their "Tonight" by Elton John program. They train at the Detroit Skating Club with Johnny Johns, Mitch Moyer, and Jason Dungjen. He has slimmed down again since last season and his lifts with Hinzmann were much more secure. They also landed their side-by-side triple toe loops. They did have an early draw, skating first in a 16-team field and currently are seventh.

The pairs' freeskating final, which counts for two thirds of the final score, takes place on Friday evening (7:10 PM) at the American Airlines Center. With past champions Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman no longer competing, a new champion will definitely be crowned in pairs. Baring a disaster, it looks to be

Our new national champions, Tiffany Scott and Phillip Dulebohn made several mistakes in their "Les Miserables program. She fell on their side-by-triple toes, she missed the throw triple toe and she crashed into Dulebohn's chest on the triple twist. She also put her hand down on the throw triple Salchow. An audible "thank god" was heard from an audience member when they did land their side-by-side double Axels. What a difference from their fabulous short program just two nights ago! "I think the pressure on us is put on by ourselves with our expectations of what we want to do for ourselves. I don't think it is from outside influences or the other competitors," said Scott. "Dulebohn added, "It's been our goal to skate two clean programs. It's been eluding us."

The other leading teams were even worse. After earning second place in the short program, Stephanie and Aaron missed every side by side or throw jump element, dropping from second to fifth, which put them in fifth place overall. "Hopefully we can rebound and come out and skate better next time," said Parchem.

Larissa Spielberg and Craig Joeright started in third place at the beginning of the evening but finished the night in fourth place for the pewter medal. He fell on their side-by-side triple toe loops and she two footed their side-by-side double Salchows. She fell on the throw triple Salchow but they did a nice triple twist before going right into a throw triple loop. "I think we were both kind of shaky out there. We didn't take our time and relax like we do at home," said Spielberg. No trip to Washington DC in March for these two teams who both train in the Detroit area.

Moving up despite mistakes were Rena Inoue and John Baldwin. They placed fifth in the short program and moved up to third in the freeskate. She finished the evening with five stitches in her knee after she crashed on a fall on their throw triple loop. "I got my first and only standing ovation in 1995. It is kind of like hitting a good shot playing the game of golf. You hit so many bad ones that the good one keeps you going back. I have probably said five times that I was getting out of skating but then someone like Rena comes along. I want to skate well for her and my coach, Jill," said Baldwin.

The final team of the night to compete were Kathryn Orscher and Garrett Lucach. This team skated one of their best performances with just some minor step outs on their side-by-side jumps but both their throws were clean and big. Their scores led to some flip-flopping in the ordinals and they finished in second in the freeskate and overall. "I knew no matter what happened, I still had to do my job and Katie had to do hers. There is almost always mistakes (in pairs) because of the difficulty," said Lucash.

The 2003 USFSA's world team includes Scott and Dulebohn, Orscher & Lucash, and Inoue & Baldwin. They will all three need to step things up for these World championships in March. These three teams will also compete at the Four Continents competition in Beijing, China on February 10 - 16 and will have another chance to redeem themselves before a judging panel. "We've had a couple of good seasons in the past, but I think for us to really take the next step we really have to be more solid more often," said Dulebohn.