State of American Ladies: 2013-14 Season | Page 55 | Golden Skate

State of American Ladies: 2013-14 Season

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Yeah but when Mirai skated as the leader in FP she was the last to skate and everything was on the line so to say there was no pressure is ridiculous. Not just for the US title but a spot on the Olympic team. Not sure if she knew how Rachael and Ashley skated but she had to know she had to skate like she never had to have a chance to make the Olympic team.

That's a good point. That is probably one of the few times she was first and did not crumble.
 

MK's Winter

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
You could that she did not have a much pressure in 2010 either. I think people were paying a lot more attention to Sasha Cohen's comeback and Rachael Flatt got a lot of buzz for beating (flawed) Yuna Kim at Skate America. Also Mirai had done somewhat poorly in the GP so the expectations weren't as high. Same goes for the Olympics. The story lines were Yuna vs. Mao and Joannie competing after the death of her mother, so Mirai was under the radar there. I do think she can surprise.

I think that will be the case here. All eyes are on Ashley and Gracie to go at it for the top spot. Christina and Agnes have been featured alongside the latter in road to Sochi promos. Samantha and Courtney have also made strong cases to be considered as well, so she has definitely been under the radar. I also think finishing ahead of Agnes will give her lacking confidence a boost.

Mirai posted a picture of her walking down a path with the hash tag "Road to Sochi". I think she wants this badly. I hope she buckles down, trains hard and brings it at Nationals. If she hits her jumps and brings that Mirai charm she delivered in 2010 I think she could grab that 3rd spot. At COR she hit her jumps, crossing my fingers for that and the charm:)
 

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
I hope Mirai makes it to Sochi. If she can keep it together at Nationals, she'd already have beaten everyone but Wagner and Gold. Then she'd be like the anti-Czisny - highly inconsistent just like Czisny, but successful during the Olympic seasons.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Sectionals are over. Here are the overall scores from highest to lowest:

Hannah Miller 174.80 (MW1)
Franchesca Chiera 172.78 (E1)
Ashley Cain 164.50 (MW2)
Barbie Long 157.45 (MW3)
Mariah Bell 154.91 (MW3)
Vanessa Lam 154.60 (PC1)
Kiri Baga 151.84 (E2)
Rachael Flatt 148.23 (PC2)
Leah Keiser 145.63 (PC3)
Joelle Forte 138.91 (E3)
Yasmin Siraj 138.93 (E4)
Caroline Zhang 133.94 (PC4)

Fascinating to see a new face so far at the top. Apparently she came from the Novice level and never has qualified for Nationals. To do so in such a convincing fashion is quite noteworthy.

Caroline should thank her lucky stars that Karen Chen had to WD from JGPF and Angela ended up going instead, otherwise she would have been out.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
wow that was fast...

I normally don't watch sectionals but wanted to see what shape Flatt was in and whether she'd make it through to Nationals. I must say that although (based on what I saw) she's not going to get anywhere near the '14 team, she seems to be a different skater now...more "nuance-y" for lack of a better way to put it. At least she appears to enjoy skating, which is nice to see - can't say the same for Caroline Zhang (who skated after RF) as she looked completely miserable. She didn't even stick around for scores...and barely made it through, by the skin of her teeth.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
wow that was fast...

I normally don't watch sectionals but wanted to see what shape Flatt was in and whether she'd make it through to Nationals. I must say that although (based on what I saw) she's not going to get anywhere near the '14 team, she seems to be a different skater now...more "nuance-y" for lack of a better way to put it. At least she appears to enjoy skating, which is nice to see - can't say the same for Caroline Zhang (who skated after RF) as she looked completely miserable. She didn't even stick around for scores...

I agree. Rachael is definitely not going to be anywhere near the podium, but I did enjoy her skate. She does seem to be skating with some sort of transcendence. I'm glad she grew her hair out too...it's a much better look for her!

Yeah Caroline's skate was heartbreaking to say the least. She made it by the skin of her teeth.
 

Chemistry66

Mmmmm, tacos.
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Sectionals are over. Here are the overall scores from highest to lowest:

Hannah Miller 174.80 (MW1)
Franchesca Chiera 172.78 (E1)
Ashley Cain 164.50 (MW2)
Barbie Long 157.45 (MW3)
Mariah Bell 154.91 (MW3)
Vanessa Lam 154.60 (PC1)
Kiri Baga 151.84 (E2)
Rachael Flatt 148.23 (PC2)
Leah Keiser 145.63 (PC3)
Joelle Forte 138.91 (E3)
Yasmin Siraj 138.93 (E4)
Caroline Zhang 133.94 (PC4)

Fascinating to see a new face so far at the top. Apparently she came from the Novice level and never has qualified for Nationals. To do so in such a convincing fashion is quite noteworthy.

Caroline should thank her lucky stars that Karen Chen had to WD from JGPF and Angela ended up going instead, otherwise she would have been out.

Franchesa Chiera was 6th at South Atlantic Regionals in Novice Ladies last year, so thus didn't even make Easterns. She's been doing pretty well at Senior level in summer comps apparently.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Franchesa Chiera was 6th at South Atlantic Regionals in Novice Ladies last year, so thus didn't even make Easterns. She's been doing pretty well at Senior level in summer comps apparently.

Thanks for the info! No wonder we never heard of her! Anyway, she definitely turned heads here.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Yeah Caroline's skate was heartbreaking to say the least.

I only saw the second half of it, but what I did see was someone who had virtually given up and was going through the motions. I swear she has much in common with Nagasu in that respect because they both do the same thing...
 

Skater Boy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Thanks for the info! No wonder we never heard of her! Anyway, she definitely turned heads here.

Very nice to see a new face, real new face do so well and you kind of have to cheer on Zhang. I hope she can put it together. as for who goes to Sochi - I almost feel sesend only two Wagner and Gold because who ever gets third is the luckiest girl in the world - Miller, Hicks, Nagasu, Zawadiak, Gao, with real outside shots by Flatt or Zhang (very doubtful with the latter). Zhang needs to at least skate with joy, focus on those spins. Even if she did the loop, toe loop, salchow she could still score decently probably not enough to win though but to gain her dignity.
 

Victura

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Sectionals are over. Here are the overall scores from highest to lowest:

Hannah Miller 174.80 (MW1)
Franchesca Chiera 172.78 (E1)
Ashley Cain 164.50 (MW2)
Barbie Long 157.45 (MW3)
Mariah Bell 154.91 (MW3)
Vanessa Lam 154.60 (PC1)
Kiri Baga 151.84 (E2)
Rachael Flatt 148.23 (PC2)
Leah Keiser 145.63 (PC3)
Joelle Forte 138.91 (E3)
Yasmin Siraj 138.93 (E4)
Caroline Zhang 133.94 (PC4)

Fascinating to see a new face so far at the top. Apparently she came from the Novice level and never has qualified for Nationals. To do so in such a convincing fashion is quite noteworthy.

Caroline should thank her lucky stars that Karen Chen had to WD from JGPF and Angela ended up going instead, otherwise she would have been out.

Thanks for this list. It makes me a little sad for Alissa Czisny though, seeing as her score from Regionals would've put her right in the middle of this group, but she had the unfortunate luck of being in the toughest section with 4 of the top 5 from the Midwest...
 

flying camel

Medalist
Joined
Nov 16, 2005
I went back and found that Franchesca Chiera was at the glacier falls competition over the summer where she beat Mirai in the Lp and finished third behind Courtney and Polina.
 

Sasha'sSpins

Medalist
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Country
United-States
Mirai's poor showing at NHK certainly did affect her final GP ranking. Here's hoping she just gets even better as the Season progresses.
 

Jarrett

Spectator
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Sectionals are over. Here are the overall scores from highest to lowest:

Hannah Miller 174.80 (MW1)
Franchesca Chiera 172.78 (E1)
Ashley Cain 164.50 (MW2)
Barbie Long 157.45 (MW3)
Mariah Bell 154.91 (MW3)
Vanessa Lam 154.60 (PC1)
Kiri Baga 151.84 (E2)
Rachael Flatt 148.23 (PC2)
Leah Keiser 145.63 (PC3)
Joelle Forte 138.91 (E3)
Yasmin Siraj 138.93 (E4)
Caroline Zhang 133.94 (PC4)

Fascinating to see a new face so far at the top. Apparently she came from the Novice level and never has qualified for Nationals. To do so in such a convincing fashion is quite noteworthy.

Caroline should thank her lucky stars that Karen Chen had to WD from JGPF and Angela ended up going instead, otherwise she would have been out.
Or maybe Angela should be lucky she got a bye to Nationals because of the JGPF. She skated horribly there and only scored 131.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Or maybe Angela should be lucky she got a bye to Nationals because of the JGPF. She skated horribly there and only scored 131.

No doubt a bad competition. However, you're forgetting that's 131 at a junior competition, which has one less element. If you add the choreographic sequence, that would got her 2 to 3 extra points, which would have her hovering around Caroline's score. She would have also likely got some extra PCS domestically she didn't get at JGPF.

Also consider that Angela got 131 by bombing both programs while Caroline did an OK SP. So that still illustrates my point that Caroilne would had a more difficult time making nationals had Angela been there.
 
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