Alexa and Chris were great, but the score was overdone for sure. I think 68-69 would have been more reasonable but still a bit higher than they would get internationally. I guess the judges are making a statement that Alexa and Chris are their favored pair and they wanted to put room between them and the field since there are still a lot of very good skaters coming up.
Will be very interesting to see what happens with the second group.
Wouldn't be surprised to see the judges give D/F a higher score if they too skate clean(though ofc that would be way too high, but hey, nationals.), though. After all, they've done better in the GPs.