2013 US Nationals Junior Dance

[Mrs. P]

First group done with their SD and holy moly what a score from Hawayek/Baker! 60.72. Way past A/E's score from last year!

http://www.usfigureskating.org/leade...0/results.html

I'm not watching..but will catch the in-demand later.

ETA: Also it's by far the highest junior SD score at Nationals. Granted it's only three years. But still it's a record.
ETA 2: A/E obviously haven't gone yet, so the record could still be broken.
ETA 3: And Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter just broke the record with a 63+ score. Do we have a lenient tech panel or what?

[Mrs. P]

And just like that Aldridge and Eaton break the record AGAIN with 66+. That's 3 couples with 60+ scores. And so far the Krylova/Camerlengo group has 3 out of the 4 couples in medal standing. Would have been interesting to see how the Parsons would have done.

[Mrs. P]

Here's how crazy those 60+ scores are. At the SENIOR level last season no couple got 60+ except for the Shibutanis and D/W, who actually skipped the 60s and went right to 70.

Are the couples really that much better at the junior level? Or do we have a lenient tech panel? Or do the top couples just stand out that much? I guess I'll see when I watch it later.

[Mrs. P]

Where's Doris when I need her? Hope she can come back and comment.

I did get to watch the dances finally, and wow, such great class from the top four. I can see why they were 60+ at U.S. Nationals. (Honestly I do know the scores are slightly inflated, but I wouldn't say by much. A/E were about one point higher in PCS, so basically .25 or so difference per component.

Speaking of Aldridge and Eaton, so happy they go the patterns down considering how much they struggled with them all season long. They said they practiced blues Choctaws all day and I believe it -- they were so smooth while being quite fast! Confidence was ooozing out of them today.

Quinn/Carpenter were impressive that they did not let up on their performance as zombies even as they performed the elements.

Baker/Hawayek were quite lovely. I love the beautiful edges, the elegance. Also loved Hawayek sassed it up a bit with the makeup; I saw somewhere that Madison Hubbell was helping her with that -- good job!

Moore/Klaber were quite fun in their Grease numbers. And their dance holds were quite impressive! Some senior dance pairs do not have the close holds this pair has.

Basically top six were made up of Detroit Skating Club (1,3,4) and the Washington Skating club (2,5,6). The coaches at Washington SC have a good thing going...soooo sad to not see the Parsons --I loved their Hip Hop SD.

It's going to be interesting to see how things turn out and who will end up going to Junior Worlds.

[wishonastar]

There sure seems to be a lot of talent coming up the ranks! I thought it was a great SD competition, and the FD is going to be interesting among the top teams for those medals.
Question-has the costume rule been dropped (something about coverage of the dress...)? I noticed Madeline Heritage had an almost bear midriff, though didn't see a costume deduction in the protocols.

[sky_fly20]

Mcnamara/Carpenter the next D/W
they will be a force by 2018 !

[Mrs. P]

Mcnamara/Carpenter the next D/W
they will be a force by 2018 !

Lorianne does kind of looks like Meryl with her dark hair. Hard to believe she's only 13 and able to do avant garde so well!
It's a good time in U.S. Ice Dance, I say.

[sky_fly20]

Lorianne does kind of looks like Meryl with her dark hair. Hard to believe she's only 13 and able to do avant garde so well!
It's a good time in U.S. Ice Dance, I say.

indeed, the moment I first saw them at JGP they had something special even more than Aldridge/Eaton
they will be one of the American dancers to watch out for 2018 and beyond

[Mrs. P]

indeed, the moment I first saw them at JGP they had something special even more than Aldridge/Eaton
they will be one of the American dancers to watch out for 2018 and beyond

I think Moore/Klaber were quite impressive as well -- as I said their dance holds are excellent for a newly-minted junior team. I like Aldrige/Eaton -- they really upped the ante as far as speed/edging.

[Jammers]

Hopefully there is talent coming up for the US to stay strong in Ice Dance because if D/W do retire after Sochi then the US will struggle to get three spots at Worlds for awhile. The other Senior teams won't place high enough at Worlds unless the Shibs improve and also the other Senior teams improve also. Right now without D/W we would be down to two teams.

[Mrs. P]

Hopefully there is talent coming up for the US to stay strong in Ice Dance because if D/W do retire after Sochi then the US will struggle to get three spots at Worlds for awhile. The other Senior teams won't place high enough at Worlds unless the Shibs improve and also the other Senior teams improve also. Right now without D/W we would be down to two teams.

I think we can keep three spots post-Sochi. Consider the fact that D/W, V/M and P/B will likely be out after Sochi (and perhaps W/P after a little while). I don't see the Shibs going further down the standings (even with a rough start they're still No. 8 on the SB list). So if you take those three teams out---the Shibs will likely move into the top 5. The other U.S. teams will move up too.

Also we don't necessarily need a medal winning team to keep 3 spots. As long two U.S. teams are within the top 6-7 at Worlds, the U.S. will keep 3 spots.

[Jammers]

I wonder why Aldridge and Eaton didn't decide to skate as Seniors at Nationals this season. They could have stayed Juniors internationally but skated against the big boys at Nationals. If they have any hopes of making the team for Sochi why not skate against the top teams at home to see how they stack up. They are not far off from teams like Hubbell/Donahue and Chock/Bates. The experience would have been good for them.

[Mrs. P]

I wonder why Aldridge and Eaton didn't decide to skate as Seniors at Nationals this season. They could have stayed Juniors internationally but skated against the big boys at Nationals. If they have any hopes of making the team for Sochi why not skate against the top teams at home to see how they stack up. They are not far off from teams like Hubbell/Donahue and Chock/Bates. The experience would have been good for them.

I don't think they're looking at Sochi. From Ice Network:

Aldridge and Eaton, who train under a team of coaches including Scali; Pasquale Camerlengo and his wife, Anjelika Krylova; Natalia Annenko-Deller; and Liz Punsalan-Swallow are in the unusual position of trying to earn a second consecutive U.S. junior title. Staying in the junior ranks was a decision the skaters and their coaching team made together, with input from U.S. Figure Skating.

"Their first thought was to move to senior, but we said, this is the time for you to raise [ISU ranking] points, which you need to get Grand Prix assignments when you move up to senior," Camerlengo said. "After the Olympic season, a lot of teams will retire, and it will be a great start for your career. We always think about the long term."

I think this is quite a smart strategy. If they moved up to seniors now, they would have been lost in the pack -- it is very unlikely that they would have made the World team and while they probably would have received GP events as junior bronze medalists, they would have likely struggled greatly in the SD (as they have in juniors) and been pushed down the standings and get less ISU ranking points an so on.

This season they were able to win both their JGPs, bronze at JGPF and dominate at the national level. And it's clear that it's allowed them to work on things at a more easier pace.

[mskater93]

Also, working on two (very demanding) pattern dances for the SD can be daunting. Why not just nail one SD (blues) instead of having to come up with a second one (YP) which by all accounts is super hard to learn and work on...

[Mrs. P]

Also, working on two (very demanding) pattern dances for the SD can be daunting. Why not just nail one SD (blues) instead of having to come up with a second one (YP) which by all accounts is super hard to learn and work on...

And considering all the problems they had with their key points early in the season, it just would have not been smart to divert attention to another pattern.