U.S. Sectional Championships 11/09/10 - 11/13/10 | Golden Skate

U.S. Sectional Championships 11/09/10 - 11/13/10

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
I'm excited about this, well actually I'm only excited about Eastern Sectional Championships because Gretchen Donlan & Andrew Speroff are scheduled to skate there on Friday, November 12th, at 10:40AM EST. And then the FS is the next day, which I won't be able to see because I will be at Skate America (hopefully when I get back IN will have it on-demand). :)

I just really like this pair, they are the only ones that have caught my eye thus far.

Here is their SP to "Moonlight Sonata" (shades of a very young Katia & Sergei): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZaXsnsi2I

And their FS is skated to Led Zeppelin (one of my all-time fav rock bands): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epf9vM0AIOk

Their split triple twist is amongst the very best, and so is their throw triple salchow. And Gretchen does their throw double loop so easy that I can easily see her adding an extra revolution in there. :) The lifts are decent, could be better with more variety. So the only real problem I see is their side by side jumps, which definitely need A LOT of work.

He's 22 and she'll be 17 in a few weeks time, so they do have time, but now's the time to really make an impression at Nationals, their first in Seniors if I'm not mistaken. I'm hoping a Top 5 finish for them (crossing my fingers).

ETA: I just now watched some old archive footage of them on IN (think they've only been together a little more than a year), and I was shocked to see how different Gretchen looks now than she did at 2010 US Jr. Nationals. I didn't even recognize her. She looks to have lost about 10-15 pounds. I just naturally assumed that she was built fey-like, ala Katia Gordeeva at that age. The change looks good on her I must say.
 

MissCleo

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Is there a link to the competitors skating at Eastern Sectionals? and the different event times? I have Veteran's day off and would like to make it a day of skating.
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
I've added competitors' scores from Regionals and internationals, plus club comps, to my Sectionals pages -- here are links (include links to event info and starting orders, etc.):

Easterns (starting orders are up)

Midwesterns (starting orders are up)

Pacific Coasts (starting orders are up)
 
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Chemistry66

Mmmmm, tacos.
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
I really like all your Unseen Skaters work, Sylvia.

Something interesting I noticed was some region-switching in at least one team. I pay attention to the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy teams because I find it interesting how successful the program is, especially how young some of the dancers are. I was looking at the rosters to see when the two Junior level teams (Pham/Pham and McNamara/Carpenter) were up at Easterns and couldn't spot the latter. No one was on IcePartnerSearch, and there didn't seem to be injury reports. Then I checked your Pacific Coasts rosters and saw that apparently Lorraine McNamara is now registered with a PC club instead of the Washington FSC. Probably to decrease the amount of competition in the one region, since Easterns has two successful JGP competitive teams and a few other up-and-comers while Coasts seems to have less known-as-successful teams.
 

Mystic

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 10, 2008
I have heard from a very reliable source that Andrew Speroff had an accident earlier this week in practice and cut the back of his leg with his blade. He was on crutches for two days because he could not put any weight on his leg and has not been able to skate. Because of this Andrew and Gretchen will only step on the ice for the short and long so that they can qualify for Nationals. Wishing him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing them both at Nationals
 

Nadine

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
Thanks so much for that piece of news, Mystic, my heart goes out to him & his partner Gretchen (this kinda reminds me of Evan Bates more serious injury to his achilles heel). :( Seems like I'm not the only one to have encountered bad luck this week.

The good news is that they have plenty of time to prepare for Nationals! :) And they automatically qualify. :)^)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO DONLAN & SPEROFF!!!!!!!! :party:
 

Chemistry66

Mmmmm, tacos.
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Thanks so much for that piece of news, Mystic, my heart goes out to him & his partner Gretchen (this kinda reminds me of Evan Bates more serious injury to his achilles heel). :( Seems like I'm not the only one to have encountered bad luck this week.

The good news is that they have plenty of time to prepare for Nationals! :) And they automatically qualify. :)^)

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO DONLAN & SPEROFF!!!!!!!! :party:

I find it funny that they still actually got PCS for just getting on the ice.

Hope Andrew heals up!
 

Chemistry66

Mmmmm, tacos.
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
They ended with a total score of 6-point-something.

Meaning they got 5 points PCS for the free skate.

What in the world would cause the judges to even give PCS for this?
 

Skatie

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 25, 2004
I really like all your Unseen Skaters work, Sylvia.

Something interesting I noticed was some region-switching in at least one team. I pay attention to the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy teams because I find it interesting how successful the program is, especially how young some of the dancers are. I was looking at the rosters to see when the two Junior level teams (Pham/Pham and McNamara/Carpenter) were up at Easterns and couldn't spot the latter. No one was on IcePartnerSearch, and there didn't seem to be injury reports. Then I checked your Pacific Coasts rosters and saw that apparently Lorraine McNamara is now registered with a PC club instead of the Washington FSC. Probably to decrease the amount of competition in the one region, since Easterns has two successful JGP competitive teams and a few other up-and-comers while Coasts seems to have less known-as-successful teams.

I can't find the Phams on the Nationals list - are they injured?
 

Chemistry66

Mmmmm, tacos.
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
I can't find the Phams on the Nationals list - are they injured?

According to Sylvia's list on Unseen Skaters (http://unseenskaters.wordpress.com/nationals/) they've withdrawn. I haven't seen any other info from anything - the Wheaton Academy site (the site of the group the Phams train with) isn't updated incredibly frequently and it doesn't say anything as of yet. It's likely that one of them is injured.
 
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