Wenjing Sui & Cong Han (CHN) struck gold with their fast-paced skate to selections from "Sampson and Delilah." The opening quad twist led the way to the highest technical score of the pairs’ event. The reigning World silver medalists, however, had an unusual fall on the side-by-side triple Salchow (which was downgraded for Han).  They were also dinged for not correctly executing the fly on there side by side spin.

On their performance Han remarked, "This is our first time to win this skating (competition). America is very, very lucky for us because we came here for the first (time). Today I didn’t do very well. I think I showed the audience and the judges not so good. Usually I can do this jump almost always successful, but today I fell. Next competition is the Cup of China and we want to in our home (show) we can do it very well and show all the people."

The team did not include their quad throw, and asked about omitting it Han said, “We didn’t decide (to) use it in this competition. Our coach (Hongbo Zhao - 2010 Olympic champion with Shen Xue) had a plan for us, so we just listened to my coach. My coach is a very excellent coach, and yesterday night he (told) us many stories about how to get … better and we believe our coach.”

The team's performance highlighted the increased maturity of the team, particularly Sui who projects now as a young woman.

 On the evolution of the team she said, "Years ago my partner was like my big brother. He’s the leader of our little team. And I really appreciate how he helped me and led me in all the competitions and training. Now we have a more equal partnership. We are getting much closer, more like family, big brother and big sister."

"But I want to make it clear we are not dating." she added emphatically.

Alexa Scimeca & Chris Knierim (USA), were fourth in the free program, but held on to win the silver medal. The Colorado-based team opened with a ‘fly high and say good bye’ quad twist that earned 10.00 points.

Both skaters, however, struggled with their jumps.  Both skaters stepped out of triple Salchow, Scimeca had to reach for throw triple Salchow, and Knierim fell on triple toe lop.

“We had a few stumbles. We are happy with the end result, but there’s still more to do. We need to go out and skate two clean programs, especially for nationals if we want to get to worlds,” Knierim told the press.

"The program is definitely tangible," said Scimeca. "It’s nothing out of our reach and we do it very well at home. Our jumping passes have become more consistent. Unfortunately today when it mattered we both went down, but for us it was one of the very first times we have not had to come from behind in the short, so it’s a different kind of energy going in and hopefully this will be a trend that we’ll be ahead and skate a great long, too.

The team evaluated their second straight Skate America experience.“We are very fortunate to get the silver medal. We knew it was going to be a tough competition with the teams that were slotted to skate. We are super happy; there’s still lots we can work on. It was kind of a learning experience to skate last in the long because we really haven’t done that yet.”

Canadians Julianne Seguin & Charlie Bilodeau moved up a notch and finished third in their first outing in a Senior Grand Prix.  The 2014 JGP gold medalists skated to “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.

Bilodeau expressed his excitement at the team’s final placement. “Wow. I mean when I arrived here, our only goal was to increase our score, and that’s it. We just skate like we do at home. And, yeah, I don’t believe it. Bronze medal is really great for our first Grand Prix and I’m really proud of that.”

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is described as being about very different things for different listeners.  Some call it a metaphorical description of a drunken seduction.  In their routine Bilodeau said he is a seducer and Seguin is the innocent target of his attention. 

The 2014 Olympic silver medalists from Russia, Ksenia Stolbova & Fedor Klimov were second in the free program and fifth over all.  They missed the poduim by 0.43 points due to their mediocre performance in the short program.  A fall on a downgraded triple Salchow by Stolbova cost the team at the least the bronze medal, if not the silver as well.

Tarah Kayne & Danny O’Shea (USA) placed sixth in the short and fifth in the long for a sixth place finish.  The team had falls on triple Salchow and thorw quad Salchow, as well as a time violation.

Commenting on their free skate Kayne said, "It’s definitely not what we wanted. We’ve done this program at home and we do clean run-throughs, so when you go from that to getting to your Grand Prix and things don’t really go the way you want them, it’s a little disappointing, definitely."

" It was our first time trying the throw quad so I think that was definitely on my mind from the start of the program. Also, on our six-minute warm-up, I cut through all of my bottom laces. We had to go and re-lace my skate really quickly, so that was another thing. We really didn’t get to do the second half of our warm-up and that was really difficult because I didn’t have the feeling of my right foot. It was honestly not traumatic, but very distracting right before our skate."

Added O'Shea, "Obviously we’re a little disappointed in the skate, to be truthful. We both kind of messed up on the triple Sal landing and then the throw quad was not really the best we can do. But I felt strong in how we fought back in the program and we finished strong."

The team described the quad Salchow currently at about 50%.  "It’s pretty consistent," said Kayne. "I would say (we land it) 50 percent (of the time in practice). You know, we try not to do a whole bunch of them in general, but if I don’t land the first one, I always land the second one."

"Next time (in competition), it won’t be our first time trying the quad, so I don’t think I’ll have that same emotion,' she added.

Jessica Pfund & Joshua Santillan (USA) placed eight in the short and seventh in the long to finish eighth.  They were a last minute substitution for Gretchen Donlan & Nathan Bartholomay who withdrew due to illness (Donlan).

Describing their experience in their first Grand Prix Pfund said, "For our first Grand Prix, I’m really happy with that. It was really exciting to be out there and for our first time out, it’s really good for us. We’ve only been together six months, so I’m very happy with that."

 Santillan added, "I’m really happy with how we skated. It’s how we’ve been practicing. ... We had a pretty good skate last week in Canada and our score moved up from there so we’re definitely happy to break 150 and happy to break 100 in the free skate."