Keegan Messing - Local Sports Star | Golden Skate

Keegan Messing - Local Sports Star

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
I was just coming here to post the article link. :)

Excerpts from the article:
Messing needed points if he was going to medal, and a clean triple axel could make the difference. At practice between programs, he was landing his triple axels. Then, during warmups for his [novice] free skate, he landed one perfectly.
And it was a beaut!

"We decided we just might was well go for it," Ralph [Burghart] said. "One hundred percent, go-all-out, everything-or-nothing kind of deal."

The triple axel was the second jump in Messing's free skate. The Burgharts [Ralph and Rory Flack] watched anxiously.

"We told him, 'One element at a time,' " Ralph said. "He was really focused, the entrance was good. Everything was good. He just stepped up and did it."
Messing was 4th to skate in the FS (of the 12 novice men) and got credit for rotating the 3axel with a hand down (receiving -2 and -1 GOE from the judges) and he landed a total of 7 triples (with a turnout on his second 3lutz). Messing scored 94.59 points in winning the Novice Men's free skate and the bronze medal in Spokane.

The 2007 Gardena Spring Trophy in Italy next month will be Messing's first junior and international competition. The article mentions that Messing is one of 2 U.S. guys competing in junior but it's actually 3 -- Messing, Richard Dornbush (8th in junior) and Alexander Johnson (2nd in novice).

ETA: My first time seeing Keegan Messing compete in person was at the Liberty summer club competition near Philadelphia in July 2006 where he was a crowd favorite in the Novice Men's events and placed 2nd in the SP Final and 4th in the FS Final.
 
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Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
He sounds great, Toni! Have you seen him?

I saw him skate a rather hokey routine last year during the Fur Rondy event ( http://www.furrondy.net ) that the local club hosts every year...

I wasn't planning on going this year just because it costs a whole lot more than it should for something that's really not about the skating so much as mom and dad watching their little ones skate in circles (the club my brother was a part of doesn't charge for the same type of event, so maybe I'm just spoiled lol)

He was amazing on the itty bitty ice... :rock: definitely my favorite... I may have to put those photos I have of the event up so I can say I saw him way back when! :laugh:
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
yeah it's kinda like the build up to the Olympics... because the Iditarod starts soon after Rondy ends...

it's fun...

*sings to the tune of 'One, Singular Sensation' or whatever the real title is*
Wild! Wild about Anchorage
It's a marvelous find!...
 
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