Senior Ladies LP

Free Skating

Starting Order

Warmup Group
1 Brittney Westdorp, Greater Grand Rapids FSC
2 Tatyana Khazova, Broadmoor SC
3 Blake Rosenthal, SC of Wilmington
4 Melissa Telecky, Detroit SC
5 Chrissy Hughes, Highland SC

Warmup Group
6 Taylor Firth, Jamestown SC
7 Tenile Victorsen, All Year FSC
8 Becky Bereswill, Houston FSC
9 Molly Oberstar, St. Paul FSC
10 Angela Maxwell, Dallas FSC
11 Karen Zhou, All Year FSC

Warmup Group
12 Beatrisa Liang, All Year FSC
13 Alexe Gilles, Broadmoor SC
14 Ashley Wagner, SC of Wilmington
15 Laney Diggs, All Year FSC
16 Kristine Musademba, Washington FSC
17 Joelle Forte, SC of New York

Warmup Group
18 Katrina Hacker, SC of Boston
19 Mirai Nagasu, Pasadena FSC
20 Brittney Rizo, SC of Boston
21 Rachael Flatt, Broadmoor SC
22 Caroline Zhang, All Year FSC
23 Alissa Czisny, Detroit SC

When I 1st starting thinking about the order, I was stressing about placements and who was going to end up in the final flight. BUT from the looks of it, minus a couple of names the flights look almost as I expected them.

I had anticipated Bebe & Ashley being in the final flight before the SP started. I had also anticipated seeing Kimmie & Emily in the last flight or next to last flight as well. But with withdrawls & unexpected errors, I guess the flights ended up like they were expected too.

I cant wait to see the LP I wish each skater the best of luck. I hope all of them get televised.:agree: I wonder how they will pick who gets coverage and who wont.

How are the they doing the draws these days?

For the final group, it looks like they took the top three and did a draw for the final three slots, and another draw for skaters ranked 4-6, for the first three slots.

Did they do this for every group? Or for the three groups for skaters ranked 7th through 23rd did they just do a random draw amongst the six in the group without regard to rank?

Understandably based on her previous comp record, many are nervous about Alissa's ability to jump well under pressure. I know my concerns will be greatly alleviated if she skates well tonight, having to go last. If she does well tonight, her two performances here, along with the results she's had all season, would seem to me to indicate she's definitely found a new consistency. If she can handle the pressure here, why not send her to Worlds?

Good luck to all the skaters, Rachael, Caroline, Mirai, and all the rest!

The USFSA very well may want to send the top 3 podium finishers at Nationals all to 4CC and have a skate-off for those final 2 Worlds spots. That would be the sane thing to do!

Well, the champion is guaranteed to go to World's by current rules. But sending 2nd and 3rd off to 4CC for a skate-off may not be a bad idea. I don't know, depends on how close the final results are.

How many spots does the US have for 4CC?

feraina said:

How many spots does the US have for 4CC?

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All countries are allowed 3 spots, no matter what.

LeCygne said:

All countries are allowed 3 spots, no matter what.

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In that case, then, I'd send top three to 4CC. The winner, whoever it is, could use the extra practice -- all of our youngsters need more experience, and Alissa (should she win) needs to practice being mentally tough and reliable. And a skate-off between 2nd and 3rd would be good, also because US and int'l judges haven't always seen eye to eye, and ultimately it'll be the int'l judges who'll determine the outcome at World's and at the Olympics.

It's really surprising that Britney Rizo ended up in the last fight, good for her to skate so well! But I do imagine that Ashley will pull up into the top 5 or 6, as might Alexe. Katrina Hacker and Britney Rizo, elegant as they look, simply don't have the harder triples, which puts them at greater advantage in the FS. They would be doing fewer triples, and the triples they do will be off less value. So they can't afford any mistakes at all, and even then, they can't expect to place that high unless others make significant mistakes.

It will be very interesting to see how Alissa will fare under the pressure of leading and going last. She and her coaches are all talking about a new Alissa this season, so I think if she proves herself with two good skates, then indeed she deserves to go to World's, even if there wasn't a rule guaranteeing her spot.

I thought it was a bit ridiculous that Rachael's 1-pt advantage over Caroline came almost entirely from the 1-pt she earned more than Caroline in the PCS. She skated slowly, without spark or excitement, and her perennial bad posture, whereas Caroline skated with more speed and confidence and charisma, and much better line and stretch. Whether this is due to Caroline skating so early and Rachael dead last, or Rachael having more hype coming into the competition, or the judges made up their mind beforehand that they like Rachael more, we'll never know for sure. (My guess is some combination of all three.)

But since they're only one point apart, and Caroline is just after Rachael tomorrow in the FS, then at least Caroline will not have the disadvantage of going much earlier, and maybe the prior hype issue will also be less of a concern. If they both go clean (if they don't, who knows what can happen to the PCS), and if Caroline still skates with clearly more speed, spark, and polish, as she did in the SP, then I would think she'll get at least as high of PCS as Rachael if not higher -- it should be obvious since she will skate right after Rachael. Unless of course, the judges have really made up their mind that they prefer Rachael over Caroline (which wouldn't surprise me either).

I don't think USFSA likes this skate off thing. They will send the top 2 to worlds. esp. if the final standing is like the one right now, they'll send Rachael for sure. No reason to send Caroline over Rachael based on the international score and performance this year. but we'll see.

jumpjumpjump said:

I don't think USFSA likes this skate off thing. They will send the top 2 to worlds. esp. if the final standing is like the one right now, they'll send Rachael for sure. No reason to send Caroline over Rachael based on the international score and performance this year. but we'll see.

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There's no reason to send Caroline over Rachael if Rachael does place ahead of Caroline tomorrow. If Caroline beats Rachael however, that's a different story. This Caroline is clearly not the same one we saw on the GP, as she showed last night. I would be upset if they chose to send Rachael despite Caroline beating her.

LeCygne said:

There's no reason to send Caroline over Rachael if Rachael does place ahead of Caroline tomorrow. If Caroline beats Rachael however, that's a different story. This Caroline is clearly not the same one we saw on the GP, as she showed last night. I would be upset if they chose to send Rachael despite Caroline beating her.

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I know.. I said, if the standing is like this right now, aka, if the standing after LP is like the SP right now, then no reason to send caroline over rachael.

If Caroline does beat Rachael tomorrow overall, then I think they should send Caroline over Rachael, unless they're 1-2. I just don't like the idea of skate off. Whoever places 1-2 after tomorrow should go to the Worlds

jumpjumpjump said:

I just don't like the idea of skate off. Whoever places 1-2 after tomorrow should go to the Worlds

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I guess I agree with that myself. But what if there's a tie?! Not impossible. Katrina and Ashley tied for the SP this year. Evan & Johnny tied in total last year. Then you have these inane tiebreakers that piss everyone off.

God, please let their be not tiebreaker between 2nd and 3rd (or even really close result like .05), I would feel really bad for whoever ending up in 3rd. Let it just be a crystal clear result so that everyone -- the judges, the audience, and most importantly, the skaters themselves -- can agree on who the best two are. Please, please...

feraina said:

I guess I agree with that myself. But what if there's a tie?! Not impossible. Katrina and Ashley tied for the SP this year. Evan & Johnny tied in total last year. Then you have these inane tiebreakers that piss everyone off.

God, please let their be not tiebreaker between 2nd and 3rd (or even really close result like .05), I would feel really bad for whoever ending up in 3rd. Let it just be a crystal clear result so that everyone -- the judges, the audience, and most importantly, the skaters themselves -- can agree on who the best two are. Please, please...

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haha, it's rare that the total score will be tied. But, if that's the case... i guess it's the only time that's fair for a skate off in 4CC, otherwise, 1-2 go to worlds

feraina said:

I guess I agree with that myself. But what if there's a tie?! Not impossible. Katrina and Ashley tied for the SP this year. Evan & Johnny tied in total last year. Then you have these inane tiebreakers that piss everyone off.

God, please let their be not tiebreaker between 2nd and 3rd (or even really close result like .05), I would feel really bad for whoever ending up in 3rd. Let it just be a crystal clear result so that everyone -- the judges, the audience, and most importantly, the skaters themselves -- can agree on who the best two are. Please, please...

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Well if there is a tie involving Katrina, she ought to take what events they give her given this is her last year. I still don't understand why she was not willing to fight for her wolds spot last year - esp. if she knew he only had a year or so left before she was off to college. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

dwiggin3 said:

Well if there is a tie involving Katrina, she ought to take what events they give her given this is her last year. I still don't understand why she was not willing to fight for her wolds spot last year - esp. if she knew he only had a year or so left before she was off to college. Seems like a wasted opportunity.

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Well, what could she have done to "fight" for her spot? It says clearly in the rules that besides the champion, it is up to USFSA to decide whom to send, taking into account of past results in ISU championships and GP's, in some order of priority. And if Katrina complained, USFSA would just point out that all Kimmie's past record made her an overall stronger candidate.

But I've read it something that Katrina didn't want to go last year... she thinks she's not really ready yet or something. So, USFSA really didn't choose Kimmie over Katrina..

jumpjumpjump said:

But I've read it something that Katrina didn't want to go last year...

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USFSA offered her the spot and she turned them down.

kate said:

USFSA offered her the spot and she turned them down.

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Yea, that's what i heard too.. strange indeed. so it's really not USFSA favored Kimmie on this.

kate said:

USFSA offered her the spot and she turned them down.

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Wow I did not know that.

Oh, yeah, now I remember something like that too.

So, hey, here's the Icenetwork article about Ladies SP:
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090123&content_id=59661&vkey=ice_news

What is interesting is that they're saying Caroline started off her program strong, particularly highlighting the 3F-3T. Does that mean it was not downgraded? It didn't look that under-rotated even in the slow-mo, but the 3F was maybe borderline if a caller wanted to be strict -- and it seems to me that callers are always strict with Caroline, especially at National's. She clearly got a -GOE on the 2A. And the layback was only level 2. *sigh* I'm guessing maybe one or both of the other two spins were also only level 3. They also mentioned that she wobbled on her spiral sequence. Did anyone notice that?! Maybe on the last position? Maybe that meant lower GOE or lower level than usual?

If the 3F-3T wasn't downgraded, does that make it the only successful 3-3 of the SP? Maybe there were some successful 3T-3T's? I can't remember. In this case, I'm even more disappointed that the judges didn't give her a little more of a break with the PCS.