What's Happening in U.S. Regionals and Sectionals?

[SeaniBu]

I'm no audio expert, but I think a lot of the problem understanding announcements at events like these stems from..

It compounds the issue. Another factor is enunciation, announcers don't move their mouths enough, slightly exaggerate the mouth movements. Looks silly, but who is watching them.

Any "PA" system is initially meant for vocal use, it is also a issue when the balances and equalizer adjustments are made and not taking into consideration the "full house" changing those levels.

All of these factors make it bad, but if the first was addressed then it would not be. Not saying I am an expert but have talked with them. Use of the Mic is the first issue. And have heard the difference when it alone is addressed.

I do agree on the fans needing to hold off until the name has be fully announced for sure.!!!!! Besides, Shizuka never would have heard me shout "Go Shi-Chan" if I would have been yelling with the rest of the audience.

[hockeyfan228]

The music comes across wonderfully, except when there are lyrics. So it's not the announcers.

I was able to drop in on Senior OD last night on my way to dinner. (It was supposed to be Senior Men's SP according to the schedule, but they have been running early, and I only got to see the last part of Dennis Phan's program, which was quite well skated.)

Costumes were much better than the Senior CD costumes. I didn't really love the programs, but for part of their OD, the woman named Charlotte projected a real, diva-esque quality, and she has a number of fans among the younger skaters.

The couple from Seattle got a deafening reception as they appeared, but the crowd was a bit disappointed at their skate, which got a bit bogged down on the footwork.

[chuckm]

EASTERN (complete) in order of finish

Senior Men
Derrick DELMORE, Jordan MILLER, Craig RATTERREE, Shaun ROGERS

Senior Ladies
Kylie GLEASON, Taylor FIRTH, Michelle BOULOS, Megan WILLIAMS-STEWART

Senior Pairs
EVORA / LADWIG, KATZ / LYNCH, JORDAN / ELEFANTE

Senior Dance
MIOSI / PONOMAREV, SLATTERY / LEE, ELLIMAN / SEREBRENIK

Junior Men
Adam RIPPON, Daniel RAAD, Schuyler ELDRIDGE, Q Kelvin VU

Junior Ladies
Sherry BARNES, Michaelee SCARINCIO, Blake ROSENTHAL, Brittney RIZO

Junior Pairs
BYRNE / BARTHOLOMAY, SHELTON / SHELTON, OKAMOTO / BERNING, SYME / PFOH, SCHLEICHER / SCHLEICHER

Junior Dance
BOSLEY / CORONA, TOMARCHIO / SINCHAK, COHEN / ROBERTS, SIEGEL / MILLER

Novice Men
Armin MAHBANOOZADEH, Alexander AIKEN, Scott DYER, Alexander ZAHRADNICEK (a South Atlantic sweep!)

Novice Ladies
Kristine MUSADEMBA, Ksenia MAKAROVA, Masha LEONOV, Emily YOUNG

Novice Pairs
LEE / TOTH, TANOVICH / CHAU, YANKOWSKAS / COHEN, CASTELLI / SHNAPIR

Novice Dance
BAILEY / HERRING, CANNUSCIO / LORELLO, CANNUSCIO / COPELY, DEUTCH / LORELLO

[chuckm]

PACIFIC SECTIONALS (complete), in order of finish:

Senior Men
Michael VILLAREAL, Daisuke MURAKAMI, Dennis PHAN, Nick LAROCHE

Senior Ladies
Danielle KAHLE, Erin REED, Becky HUGHES, Margaret WANG
except for Kahle, all first time at Senior Nationals


Senior Pairs
SHARMA / BURGESS, TROMBLEY / IBARRA, BERIAU / MERRITT, SY / DAVIS (the first 3 are new pairings)

Senior Dance
WHETSTONE / OBZANSKY, MALLORY / HOLDBURG, MAXWELL / TRAXLER, CYDERS / YOUNG

Junior Men
Princeton KWONG, Doug RAZZANO, Ricky DORNBUSH, Andrew GONZALEZ

Junior Ladies
Mirai NAGASU, Victoria RACKOHN, Chrissy HUGHES, Kelcie LEE

Junior Pairs
BUTLER / JACOBSEN, GUILLEN / CURZON, BROWN / MILLER, DAVIS / HATFIELD, SALES / NGUYEN

Junior Dance
KRIENGKRAIRUT / GIULETTI-SCHMITT, WINGLE / DEVEREAUX, OSWALD / WITHROW, PERINO / AVILA

Novice Men
Keegan MESSING, Max AARON, Grisha FOURNIER, Will MICHAEL

Novice Ladies
Victoria HECHT, Carolyn Ann ALBA, Ellie KAWAMURA, Molly AARON

Novice Pairs
NAHM/ NAHM, BAUTISTA / HOPSON, VOLLMER / SPARKS, HERITAGE / SULLIVAN

Novice Dance
CHOCK / ZUERLEIN, MATSUMOTO / SKILLINGTON, OLSON / MAYS, WOLF / AINSWORTH

[Joesitz]

Thanks Chuckum - I will be particularly glad to see the following and think there could be upsetting applecarts;

Evora/Ludwig in Senior Pairs

Adam Rippon (ya gotta see this guy. He's androgenous and much like Johnny Weir) in Junior Men.

Kristine Musadema in Novice Ladies

There are others I've heard about but not seen. And that Novice Dance, with those Canuscios and Lorellos. It should be a good US Nats with surprises in2007.

Joe

[chuckm]

MIDS SECTIONALS (all complete) in order of finish:

Senior Men
Jeremy ABBOTT, Ryan BRADLEY, Parker PENNINGTON, Braden OVERETT (Wes CAMPBELL and Rohene WARD were 5th and 6th)

Senior Ladies
Rachael FLATT, Megan HYATT, Angie LIEN, Ambar KAISER
(Rachael won by 33 points and got a 60 TES in her FS; her back injury has healed.
Megan was 11th after the SP and finished 2nd in the FS for the comeback of the year)

Senior Pairs
VISE / TRENT, CASTILE / OKOLSKI, KUBAN / POTTENGER, WEHRLE / KOLE, PIXLEY / SALWAY

Senior Dance: no competition at Mids.

Junior Men
Eliot HALVERSON, Grant HOCHSTEIN, Jonathan CASSAR, William BREWSTER

Junior Ladies
Alexe GILLES, Chaochih LIU, Kirsten OLSON, Brittney WESTDORP

Junior Pairs
BEST / YOUNG, MOORE / GAUMOND

Junior Dance
HUBER / EDELMANN, GILLES / McKERNAN, LLOYD / DEVERS, FARRELL / FISHPAW

Novice Men
Daniel O'SHEA, Alexander JOHNSON, Victor TRAVIS, Jon FELDER

Novice Ladies
Angela MAXWELL, Caroline FERRIS, Deedee LENG, Danielle SEITZ

Novice Pairs
LUCHAU / SPEROFF, CARMAN / KNIERIM, KELLY / WOODRUFF, GLASSBERG / WEISS

Novice Dance
SHIBUTANI / SHIBUTANI, EVANS / TRUESDELL, PENNINGTON / JOHNSTON, COOK / COWAN

[Joesitz]

Does this mean I will not see Rohene in Spokane??

I can't wait to see Rachel.

Joe

[hockeyfan228]

Does this mean I will not see Rohene in Spokane??

Sadly, yes.

In the senior dance, keep your eye on

1. Charlotte Maxwell. In her FD, she was the only woman with a beautiful, flexible upper back and full body dancing. Her partner is a little too smiley for me (think Strictly Ballroom, although that might play a lot better in Spokane's larger stadium than in a small, neighborhood rink with maybe 15 rows.) It's a fun program -- I have to like a program that ends with Aretha Franklin singing "Respect" -- and I love her yellow dress.

2. Mallory/Holdburg's FD. They are coached by Ponomarenko, and Klimova has choregraphed a program for them that could have been danced by Klimova/Ponomorenko. Mallory/Holdburg held their own in it, which is saying a lot.

3. Whetstone/Obzansky's CDs and FD. In the CDs, I watched her point her feet beautifully. But through two phases, I wondered why everyone was so heartbroken when he went on a Mormon mission and Kendra Goodwin lost her partner. I found out in the free dance. It was Shpilband choreography, and he must be envisioning waltzes this year. The FD wasn't strictly a waltz -- sounded like ick soundtrack music -- but it had the flow and feel of one. They skated with beautiful speed and flow, and skated very close together in the footwork. She has lovely arms.

In junior dance, to watch out for:

1. Kriengkrairut/Giuliett-Schmitt. They skated with lots of energy and interpreted their music well. (Although I could have lived without the "rhythm box" accompaniment of the second musical selection.) They are nicely balanced, and they are skating to the same tune.

(One of the teams that didn't make it, Aanya Reiten and Duke Wensel were not. They did a swing program, which was terrific for her, but he's a waltzer, and judging from their waltz CD, a very, very good one.)

2. Oswald/Withrow, another Shpilband team with atypical choreography. They did the finest dance spin I saw at the competition, and his leg positions are difficult. She is very smooth, but he is a rock star, albeit with an Achilles heel: he either doesn't have the twizzle gene or he left it at home. He reminds me a bit of Ryan Bradley.

3. Perino/Avila. They need a bit more control, but they had a superb circular footwork sequence, very smooth. They also do very fast rotational lifts.

I didn't like the team that came in second, Wingle and Devereaux, very much, because they are a Shpilband team with a typical Shpilband, CoP-friendly but labored program. Her legs are as thin as Dan Zhang's.

Among the junior pairs, Butler and Jacobson have the bigger difficulty, but were a bit scratchy and bumpy. In my opinion, Chelsi Guillen and Danny Curzon are the ones to watch. She has charisma and great expression.

I think you're going to love seeing Phan, Murakami, and Villarreal. Each has excellent choreography (Wilson, Burge, and Dickson, respectively) in their LP -- and from what I saw at the end of Phan's SP, there as well -- and they move really smoothly across the ice. They don't have the highest technical content -- at least they didn't show it here -- but they skated beautiful programs.

I left before the Senior Pairs and Senior Ladies to go to a music performance, which was a mistake, because I couldn't find a paid parking space anywhere near the theater, and gave up and went home :(

[SeaniBu]

The music comes across wonderfully, except when there are lyrics. So it's not the announcers.

Sorry to go OT, but that makes no sense at all.

[Joesitz]

Thanks Hockeyfan. I will take your comments with me to Spokane.

Seanibu - It is OT and I wish we had a thread on acoustics in ice skating rinks, but nevertheless, I think Hockeyfan is saying that it's the voice over the music that cause some static problem. I have to put up with this a MidAtlantics because it is held in an ice rink and not an arena where one pays for admission.

Joe

[childfreegirl]

MIDS SECTIONALS (all complete) in order of finish:

Senior Men
Jeremy ABBOTT, Ryan BRADLEY, Parker PENNINGTON, Braden OVERETT (Wes CAMPBELL and Rohene WARD were 5th and 6th)

I was at Mids and Braden Ovrett blew the roof off with that long program. I don't mean the applause, though he got a good amount of that, at least. I mean the pure overwhelmingness of the program. It had speed and his componets scores were through the roof! 70+! He wasn't completely clean, but close, according to my notes.

[Spun Silver]

And what did you think of Abbott?

[Joesitz]

It seems Midwestern Sectionals has more tougher competition than Easterns or Pacific. I've seen all these guys before, and expect a good showing this time at Nats.

But it's RACHEL that just may take over Senior Ladies at US Nats 2007. It's a must see.

Also looking forward to seeing Eliot Halverson v. Adam Rippon in Jr. Men.

Spokane - it's so far away. I hope they have a January thaw.

Joe

[backspin]

Anyone who was at Pacifics; what did you think of senior dance team Cyders & Young? I saw them at Lake Placid in August. They're a new team, but at that stage looked horribly mismatched. He is fabulous, and she, by comparison, looked more like a student skating w/ her coach than a partner. She kind of had that deer-in-the-headlights look, so I wondered if it was nerves.

What made it worse, for their OD, he was dressed head to toe in black leather, and she was in a pale cream dress that made her just fade away into the ice.....watching them skate, all you saw was him.

[hockeyfan228]

Anyone who was at Pacifics; what did you think of senior dance team Cyders & Young? I saw them at Lake Placid in August. They're a new team, but at that stage looked horribly mismatched. He is fabulous, and she, by comparison, looked more like a student skating w/ her coach than a partner. She kind of had that deer-in-the-headlights look, so I wondered if it was nerves.

Their scores were significantly lower than the other three teams, who were within 7 points of each other, which was correct; they are not at the level of the other competitors. They are obviously new and inexperienced, but he presents her very well, and has a more low-key Agosto-like charm. What impressed me about their FD was how they used all planes, with lots of deep knees and slides.