U.S. Regional Championships (includes bye info)

I've compiled general information on the 9 upcoming U.S. Regional Championships (the first step for singles skaters in qualifying for 2009 U.S. Nationals) into this one thread. I've listed all the skaters with known byes through Regionals.

NEW ENGLAND
Thu. Oct. 2-Sun. Oct. 5 in Kingston, MA
Schedule/roster: http://www.yarmouthiceclub.org/2009Regionals/
Bye - Sr.: Katrina Hacker, Curran Oi, Brittney Rizo
No Senior or Junior Men's event on schedule (4 or fewer elected not to compete).
Starting orders have been posted on the club site.

CENTRAL PACIFIC
Thu. Oct. 2-Sun. Oct 5 in San Jose, CA
Schedule/roster: http://www.peninsulaskatingclub.org/pages/page.php?pageid=48
Bye - Sr.: Scott Smith
Bye - Jr.: Amanda Dobbs
Senior and Junior Men's events are both on the schedule even though there are 4 or fewer men registered for each.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC
Sat. Oct. 4-Tue. Oct. 7 in Anaheim, CA
Schedule/roster: http://www.2009swp.com/swp/index.php
Bye - Sr: Dennis Phan, Danielle Kahle, Tenile Victorsen, Karen Zhou
Bye - Jr: Richard Dornbush, Andrew Gonzales, Austin Kanallakan
No Senior Men's event on schedule (4 or fewer elected not to compete). There will be a Junior Men's event (4 registered, minus the 3 byes).

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NORTH ATLANTIC
Fri. Oct. 10-Tue. Oct. 14 in Jamestown, NY
Schedule/roster: http://www.chautauquaice.com/regionals/regionals.html
Bye - Sr.: Adam Rippon
Senior and Junior Men's events are both on the schedule.
The Senior Ladies event includes Emily Hughes, Taylor Firth (to name just 2).

EASTERN GREAT LAKES
Fri. Oct. 10-Tue. Oct. 14 in Midland, MI
http://www.eglregionals2009.org/
Schedule/roster: http://www1.sk8stuff.com/eglr09/index.php
Bye - Sr.: Alissa Czisny, Wesley Campbell, Jonathan Cassar, Abigail Legg
The Senior Men's event includes Parker Pennington, Eliot Halverson, William Brewster.
3 have elected to compete in the Junior Men's event, including Grant Hochstein and Victor Travis.

SOUTHWESTERN
Fri. Oct. 10-Tue. Oct. 14 in Colorado Springs, CO
Schedule/partial roster: http://www.broadmoorsc.com/Default.aspx?Page=2009southwesternregionalchampionships
Bye - Sr.: Alexe Gilles, Becky Bereswill, Angela Maxwell, Amy Nunn
No Senior Men's event on schedule; a Junior Men's event is listed.
The Junior Ladies event is especially deep this year and includes Marissa Secundy, Sophia LaMay, Agnes Zawadzki, Victoria Fairchild, Gabrielle Schorg, etc.

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SOUTH ATLANTIC
Tue. Oct. 14-Sat. Oct. 18 in Aston, PA
Schedule/partial roster: http://www.iceworkssc.org/
Bye - Sr.: Kimmie Meissner, Melissa Bulanhagui, Kristine Musademba, Shaun Rogers, Tommy Steenberg, Michael Solonoski
Bye - Jr.: Armin Mahbanoozadeh
Senior and Junior Men's events are on the schedule.

UPPER GREAT LAKES
Tue. Oct. 14-Sat. Oct. 18 in Richfield, MN
Schedule/roster: http://www.stpaulfsc.org/Uppers.htm
Bye - Sr.: Molly Oberstar
Bye - Jr.: Alexander Johnson
Senior and Junior Men's events are both on the schedule even though there are 4 or fewer men registered for each.

NORTHWEST PACIFIC
Thu. Oct. 16-Sat. Oct. 18 in Jackson, WY
Schedule/roster: http://www.jhfsc.org/2009nwpregionals.htm
Bye - Jr.: Keegan Messing
No Senior or Junior Men's event on schedule.

Senior men from '08 Nationals not competing this season that I know of: Derrick Delmore (SA/Easterns; though he is skating Junior Pairs with Kelcie Lee out of Coasts), Braden Overett (SW/Mids), Geoffry Varner (CP/Coasts), Rohene Ward (UGL/Mids).

For those interested in how IJS scores from U.S. summer/non-qualifying competitions compare for skaters at the Senior, Junior, Novice, Intermediate and Juvenile levels, as well as Pairs, check out: http://unseenskaters.blogspot.com/ (still a work-in-progress)

From the blog above:

Agnes Zawadzki CO Springs Invitational 97.02 152.50 SW

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Also http://www.sk8stuffmore.com/comps/08/r08csi_ijs.pdf

Agnes was 4th at Nationals in the novice division and 2nd in intermediates in 2007. Born July 31, 1994.

She did a 3T+2T and 3S in her SP last season. Same in her FS. She had good to okay height on her jumps. Good spinner. Most likely she added the 3Lz this season as the lutz is the required SP jump and she scored 55.48 points in the SP. With her good spins, a 3Lz, 3S+T, 3S, 3T+2T, 3T program is plenty enough in the FS to score 97.02 points.

I presume Brandon Overett is not skating as well as Nicholas LaRoche.

Can skaters compete in any region they choose? Just curious since Eliot Halverson is listed in Eastern Great Lakes but has been Upper Great Lakes in the past (his club is hosting this year's UGLs again). He may be looking for more competition to help him hone his skills, but I thought club membership was a determining factor. Has he switched clubs?

Thanks for any info. (Nothing on his website yet: <http://www.figureskatersonline.com/eliothalverson/news.html>)

Somehow I just knew that ChrisH would notice Agnes Zawadzki's high Junior score of the non-qualifying season. Yes, she is attempting the triple Lutz in competitions this year (with mixed results at Liberty) and must have landed the jump at the CSI comp. last month.

Joesitz said:

I presume Brandon Overett is not skating as well as Nicholas LaRoche.

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Braden (not Brandon) Overett is not competing this year (as mentioned in my first post above). Nick LaRoche does not have to skate at regionals (because 4 or fewer senior men registered) and so he could still show up at Pacific Coast Sectionals if he wants to qualify for 2009 Nationals.

Anke G said:

Just curious since Eliot Halverson is listed in Eastern Great Lakes but has been Upper Great Lakes in the past ... Has he switched clubs?

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Yes, Halverson has switched coaches and clubs and now represents the Ann Arbor FSC in Michigan (EGL).

Starting orders are up on IceNetwork for New England and Central Pacific Regionals, which kick off today. The first NE results (Intermediate Ladies FS A qualifying) are up.

NE Regional: http://web.icenetwork.com/events/detail.jsp?id=47065

CP Regional: http://web.icenetwork.com/events/detail.jsp?id=47066

SWP Regional (starting orders up): http://web.icenetwork.com/events/detail.jsp?id=47067

Sylvia said:

Somehow I just knew that ChrisH would notice Agnes Zawadzki's high Junior score of the non-qualifying season.

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Then perhaps you can imagine all of the off-topic things I wanted to post. Starting with a scoring list with Caroline on top followed by Alissa ...

Yes, she is attempting the triple Lutz in competitions this year (with mixed results at Liberty) and must have landed the jump at the CSI comp. last month.

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The Liberty Summer Competition took place from July 15-19.

Sylvia said:

76.43 A Zawadzki - 2a-2t, 3z, 2s, 3s, 3t, 3t-2t, 2a (landing problems on 2nd-5th jumps)

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So most likely a 2a-2t, 3z, 3s-2t, 3s, 3t, 3t-2t-2r, 2a FS program.


The CO Springs Invitational took place from Sept.10-13. The JGP Great Britain takes place October 15-18, so Agnes Zawadski could've been added as an entry or an alternate before the 31 day deadline.

Is Agnes going to compete in the Southwestern or the Upper Great Lakes regional?

ChrisH said:

Then perhaps you can imagine all of the off-topic things I wanted to post. Starting with a scoring list with Caroline on top followed by Alissa ...

Click to expand...

Feel free to start a new/separate thread to comment on the IJS Scoretracker blog.

Is Agnes going to compete in the Southwestern or the Upper Great Lakes regional?

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Well, she's listed in SW for a reason. She joined Broadmoor SC earlier this year and is currently coached by Tom Zakrajsek et al. Due to her 2008 Nationals results (Novice 4th), Zawadzki wasn't likely to be listed as a JGP alternate this year (since Novice 2nd and 3rd were not listed, but also because Zawadzki's summer comp. results were somewhat inconsistent), but there's always hope for next season if she continues to skate this well! The SW Junior Ladies event is probably one of the deepest/most competitive events on paper of the 9 regionals this year as there are 7-8 skaters deserving to move on to Sectionals.

Sylvia said:

.....
SOUTHWESTERN
Fri. Oct. 10-Tue. Oct. 14 in Colorado Springs, CO
Schedule/partial roster: http://www.broadmoorsc.com/Default.aspx?Page=2009southwesternregionalchampionships
Bye - Sr.: Alexe Gilles, Becky Bereswill, Angela Maxwell, Amy Nunn
No Senior Men's event on schedule; a Junior Men's event is listed.
The Junior Ladies event is especially deep this year and includes Marissa Secundy, Sophia LaMay, Agnes Zawadzki, Victoria Fairchild, Gabrielle Schorg, etc.
.....

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The roster is still partial. I am curious if Katy Taylor will compete there.

Sylvia said:

The SW Junior Ladies event is probably one of the deepest/most competitive events on paper of the 9 regionals this year as there are 7-8 skaters deserving to move on to Sectionals.

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I'm not going to sweat it. Agnes is not competing against Angela Maxwell and Chaochih Liu who have moved up or elsewhere. Victoria Fairchild is the one returning threat and by moving to Broadmoor SC, Agnes has chosen to compete against Sophia Lamay and Marissa Secundy.

The SWP has more junior ladies with international experience. Ellie Kawamura has to be consistent and good if she's going to challenge for National and World medals, so she needs the competition. Ditto for Agnes.

What the USFS could do to make it more fair is set high qualifying standards to supplement the elimination rounds. For junior ladies, it could be 135 points. Place in the top 4 or score 135+ and you move on to the next round. The icenetwork is video recording all of the qualifying competitions, so I don't see a judging issue.

IceNetwork beginning to show the videos of the Novice skaters at NE Regionals.

If you like playing the game of spotting talent, as I do, check them out.

Some videos are also up for Southwest and Central Pacific.

Detailed protocols (Juvenile-Senior levels) are published on USFS' individual Regional event pages -- links can be found in the grey Event Information box.

Southwest Pacific: http://www.usfigureskating.org/event_details.asp?id=39568
Central Pacific: http://www.usfigureskating.org/event_details.asp?id=39567
New England: http://www.usfigureskating.org/event_details.asp?id=39557

The top 5 SWP junior ladies skated better at regionals than they did at Golden West.

SWP regional championships
1 Ellie Hikaru Kawamura All Year FSC 144.63 2 1
2 Carolyn-Ann Elizabeth Alba All Year FSC 130.56 1 3
3 Victoria Rose Hecht Los Angeles FSC 126.40 3 2
4 Vanessa Lam All Year FSC 121.87 4 4
5 Victoria Rackohn All Year FSC 118.35 5 5

Golden West championships
1 Ellie KAWAMURA All Year FSC 125.91 3 1
2 Vanessa LAM All Year FSC 124.21 2 2
3 Carolyn-Ann ALBA All Year FSC 116.54 1 4
4 Victoria HECHT Los Angeles FSC 110.54 6 3
5 Victoria RACKOHN All Year FSC 100.24 8 5

None of the ladies landed a 3Lo or harder jump. Only Victoria Rackohn tried one of the harder jumps, a 3Lz. Unfortunately, she fell and had the jump downgraded. That, however, was the one and only fall or downgrade that the top 5 ladies had in the SP and the FS.

Ellie managed a personal best despite of not doing her 3Lo, doing a 2Lz in the SP, and not doing a spiral sequence in the FS. It'll be interesting to compare videos to see if the cleaner programs are better than the harder ones.

I'm not too concerned about the lack of the harder triples. The seniors ladies did them, but not as cleanly.

North Atlantic Regionals starting orders/results page:
http://web.icenetwork.com/events/detail.jsp?id=47069
Taylor Firth is #13 and Emily Hughes is #16 of 20 skaters in the Senior Ladies SP. Chloe Katz (#9) may have a bye because she is competing pairs at Coupe de Nice next week.
Competition starts on Saturday -- link to event schedule: http://www.chautauquaice.com/forms/NARegionalSchedule2008.pdf

Southwestern Regionals starting orders/results page: http://web.icenetwork.com/events/detail.jsp?id=47068
Event schedule: http://www.broadmoorsc.com/Doc/2009SWSchedule.pdf

Eastern Great Lakes Regionals starting orders/results page: http://web.icenetwork.com/events/detail.jsp?id=47070
Event schedule: http://www.eglregionals2009.org/documents/CompetitionEventsSchedule.pdf

I'm looking forward to seeing Taylor Firth and Emily Hughes in North Atlantic Regionals, and Nina Jiang & Lexie Hood (both Novice) in Southwestern. The last two were amazing at the intermediate level last year, so it'd be interesting to see how they will fare at the novice level.

Wow, Nina Jiang scored 81 in the Novice ladies qualifying FS, with Dinh and Schmidt not far behind at 79 and 78. That's phenomenal! These girls probably all landed two triples.

For comparison, at 2008 National's, the top novice ladies FS scored 73 (Marissa Secundy), 70 (Felicia Zhang), and 70 (Agnes Zawadski).

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out in the SP and LP!

The U.S. is well position for not only the 2010 and 2014 Olympics (Caroline & Mirai will be 20, Rachael 21, Ashley 22), but also the 2018 Olympics. Nina Jiang is 11 now, so 16 in 2014 and 20 in 2018. Lauren Dinh I think is similar to her in age. Not sure about Schmidt. I mean, who knows if these same girls will make it all the way to 2014 or 2018. But the U.S. ladies field is very deep and has very promising girls coming out through the pipeline.

Too bad Nina won't be able to do JGP like the previous two novice championships (Maxwell & Secundy), even if she wins the novice division at National's. She will only be 11.

feraina said:

Wow, Nina Jiang scored 81 in the Novice ladies qualifying FS, with Dinh and Schmidt not far behind at 79 and 78. That's phenomenal! These girls probably all landed two triples.

For comparison, at 2008 National's, the top novice ladies FS scored 73 (Marissa Secundy), 70 (Felicia Zhang), and 70 (Agnes Zawadski).

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out in the SP and LP!

The U.S. is well position for not only the 2010 and 2014 Olympics (Caroline & Mirai will be 20, Rachael 21, Ashley 22), but also the 2018 Olympics. Nina Jiang is 11 now, so 16 in 2014 and 20 in 2018. Lauren Dinh I think is similar to her in age. Not sure about Schmidt. I mean, who knows if these same girls will make it all the way to 2014 or 2018. But the U.S. ladies field is very deep and has very promising girls coming out through the pipeline.

Too bad Nina won't be able to do JGP like the previous two novice championships (Maxwell & Secundy), even if she wins the novice division at National's. She will only be 11.

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Nina had three triples in her program, one triple toe and two triple salchows. She can be even strongger as give her enough time and room. So I think it's OK for her not doing JGPs so early.

Sdongxie said:

Nina had three triples in her program, one triple toe and two triple salchows. She can be even strongger as give her enough time and room. So I think it's OK for her not doing JGPs so early.

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Good for her! Add one more 3T and she would have the same jumps content as Amanda Dobbs! In fact, her QR LP is only 2.5 lower in TES than Dobbs' winning LP at JPG S. Africa (and 3.5 lower in PCS). But novice LP is 30 secs shorter than junior LP, isn't it? In any case, really good score for an 11-year-old first year novice skater! I'm really impressed.

No doubt she can and will get a lot better, and maybe it's better for her to hit the JGP with a big splash than to get in early in the mid-tier. It's just hard to accept that we have to wait two more years to even hope to see her on the JGP circuit. As a selfish fan, I just wish that we could get more access to her precocious skating.

She has very nice height on her jumps, especially the 2A, and she has fast spins, good speed and nice edges, and fast footwork sequences. For a little 10-year-old girl (winning 2008 intermediate ladies), she has a lot of natural presentation skills, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing her maturing as a skater and a performer!

Here's Sylvia's note on Nina's jump layout. Hopefully she'll be able to hold out today in the final.
http://www.unseenskaters.com/board/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=6091

In Novice Ladies qualifying, Jiang's jumps reportedly were: 2a, 3s-2t, 2z-2t-2r, 2a-2t, 3t and 3s, while Dihn landed a 3t-2t-2r combo.