2013 US Nationals Senior Pairs SP

**Tesla** · 01-24-2013, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by Art&Sport

Whoa, wait a minute. I guess Scimeca/ Knierim are new favorites. My Gosh, they did NOT skate better than the pairs they are in front of, especially with the mistakes they made. Donlan/ Speroff only had one fall == C/S had a bobble on the throw and both fell on their sbs jumps, and then they were a bit lackluster in the second half of the program. Wow!

Could it be because they are they only other team with minimum scores for Worlds? The judges might want to keep them close to second.

**Jammers** · 01-24-2013, 07:52 PM

If only Donlan/ Speroff could land their jumps. Donlan has positions to die for in her lifts.

**tulosai** · 01-24-2013, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by Jammers

If only Donlan/ Speroff could land their jumps. Donlan has positions to die for in her lifts.

Their other issue though is they have no speed compared to some of the other teams, at least in the past (I have not seen the pairs tonight yet so cannot comment on tonight specifically). They also have to get their levels up on anything else they can since they are not strong jumpers. A level 1 death spiral in this situation is not okay.

**Art&Sport** · 01-24-2013, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by Mrs. P

Looks like S/K's huge triple twist helped. They got a +2.10 on it, which basically negated teh -2.10 they got for their SBS jumps. So with that in mind the only major deduction was the -1 for the fall and -1.40 for the throw jump issue.

D/S got a Basic level on their death spiral AND triple twist. Ouch!

More protocals here: http://www.usfigureskating.org/leade...0/results.html

Originally Posted by Jammers

If only Donlan/ Speroff could land their jumps. Donlan has positions to die for in her lifts.

ITA Jammers, and Gretchen seemed a bit more on than Andrew. Thanks for sharing the protocols Mrs. P. Still doesn't change my overall assessment of the marks. D/S did not have a good season so far, which is an understatement. And, true the fact that they don't have "minimum score for Worlds" is a huge factor. They should have received better PCS scores, IMHO, and higher levels on what they did well. The scores are just sending them a message. Pretty sad. I hope they are able to buckle down and continue working hard and come back to challenge. There is still time for them to throw all nerves and jitters aside and just lay it down, even despite judges are unlikely to give them great scores no matter what they do at Nats this year. :(

As I said, I do like S/K, but they are a newly formed team, so the bobbles are to be expected I suppose. They sure did come out blazing with the opening moves and 3-twist, but it was very obvious that after their mistakes on their sbs jumps, that they became more flat-footed and tentative. Tonia K even remarked as much. S/K were happily surprised at being in third place. The judges were sending them a message too that they are held in high esteem, and that more is expected from them in the fp.

**Ziggy** · 01-24-2013, 08:17 PM

Well, I guess the gold medal has already been handed out pretty much.

Looking at the protocols, I am really surprised at how high the level was in this event.

So many solo and thrown triple jumps landed. Great job US pairs!

**blue_idealist** · 01-24-2013, 09:14 PM

Does anyone have any youtube videos of the pairs event?

**Mrs. P** · 01-24-2013, 09:16 PM

I saw D/S at Skate America, and as I commented previously, I was surprised at how slow they were. They are a team that definitely looks better on the screen.

They do have beautiful positions and line, but they need more than that to be competitive. tulosai, it iwasn't just a level 1 -- it was BASIC, the absolute lowest you can get. And they got it on TWO elements.

**PolymerBob** · 01-24-2013, 10:04 PM

Simon and Marissa are my favorite pair right now. I saw them at an ice show one time a few years ago. They did a move that looked so dangerous that I thought Marissa would get her head crushed. But she was fine.

**Mrs. P** · 01-25-2013, 01:52 AM

Just saw the programs.

Will say that though they are on the bottom half of the rankings (but not by much), I really enjoyed DeeDee Leng and Timothy LeDuc. I like their lines, attack, speed. I think they need more polish on the technical elements, but I think this team could be a force to be reckon with down the road.

Felicia Zhang/Nathan Bartholomay were quite lovely as well. Felicia has grown up to be such a beauty -- I remember when she won novice, she was such a tiny little thing. Great speed, footwork, ice coverage. Also another team to watch.

Marissa and Simon were great, as I expected. As always lots of attack, the height on that throw 3S is unreal.

With the exception of a few (John Baldwin's cursing not appealing at all), I though the pairs competition was great!

**samson** · 01-25-2013, 02:40 AM

Pairs SP was really great! I SO hope they keep it up for the LP. Marissa and Simon really deserved that first place. I hope they keep pushing their technical envelope. If Donlan and Speroff had been clean of the sbs toes they'd be comfortably into second. They really need to improve the difficulty of their elements. Hopefully some of Marissa and Simon's speed will rub off on them! What is keeping those levels down?

Really enjoyed Leng and LeDuc. I HOPE we get to see more of them. Zhang and Bartholomay were nice. A little boring to me, but nice. S/K definitely benefitted from the magic of COP. Although their elements ARE particularly strong together and they look so wonderful as a team. Great lines and maturity.

I really hope we see all four of these teams, and Denny and Coughlin continue to grow well past 2014.