Liberty summer competition, July 13-16, Aston, PA | Golden Skate

Liberty summer competition, July 13-16, Aston, PA

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
The 2005 Liberty club competition starts on Wednesday, July 13 and runs
through Saturday, July 16 at the IceWorks Rink Complex in Aston, PA (just west of Philadelphia). The marquee event this year is easily senior men's (SP event is scheduled for Friday 7:35-9:30 pm and the FS event has been rescheduled to *1:45 PM* on Saturday after the Senior Ladies free skate [2 groups, 9:15 am-1:30 pm] is complete.)

Eighteen senior men have registered, and the unofficial, word-of-mouth roster includes:
Jordan Brauninger (assigned to Junior Grand Prix), Mauro Bruni, Wesley Campbell, Derrick Delmore, Ryan Jahnke (Cup of China Grand Prix), Nicholas LaRoche, Parker Pennington, Craig Ratterree (JGP), Shaun Rogers (Nebelhorn Trophy), Scott Smith, Michael Solonoski, Tommy Steenberg, Rohene Ward, David Weintraub, and Jason Wong.
Non-U.S. skaters: Keegan Murphy from Canada, and Joel Watson, who represented New Zealand at 2005 Jr. Worlds and Four Continents. Unfortunately, Jeremy Abbott (2005 U.S. junior champ; assigned to Nebelhorn Trophy) has withdrawn from Liberty due to injury.

Kimmie Meissner (3rd at 2005 U.S. Nationals) most likely will not be competing at Liberty this year (not surprising since her competitive season on the Sr. GP starts much later), but some of the 40+(!) senior ladies scheduled to compete include the following skaters (all of whom qualified for 2005 U.S. Nationals at either the novice, junior or senior levels):
Emily Hughes (assigned to Cup of Russia GP), Katy Taylor (JGP), Megan Williams-Stewart (short program only; JGP), Jane Bugaeva, Katherine Hadford, Christine Zukowski (JGP), Megan Oster (JGP), Angie Lien, and 2005 novice champ Rachael Flatt (short program only; she's also competing in the Junior events at Liberty but is too young for the JGP this season because she turns 13 after the July 1st deadline).

Senior Pairs (likely roster): Tiffany Vise/Derek Trent (now coached by Doug Ladret in Arizona), Amanda Evora/Mark Ladwig (Canada GP) and Shantel Jordan/Jeremy Barrett (both coached by Kerry Leitch), Katie Beriau/Joe Gazzola (coached by Vadim Naumov), and perhaps the debut of Tiffany Scott/Rusty Fein (SP only).

Junior Grand Prix (JGP) skaters/teams scheduled to compete (besides those listed above):
Douglas Razzano, Geoff Varner, Stephen Carriere, Anna Peng, and Molly Aaron/Taylor Toth (pairs). In addition to the Northeastern states, skaters will be coming from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Texas. As always, the junior/novice/intermediate men's and ladies' fields should be deep and highly competitive.

Driving directions to the Aston rink complex:
http://iceworkssc.org/directions.htm

Competition schedule (by day and rink -- 3 rinks will be used!):
http://www.libertyskating.com

This is one of the absolutely best bargains in competitive skating -- free admission to an early season preview of new programs from talented skaters of all ages!
 
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Joined
Jul 11, 2003
This is a great competition for viewing some of the lesser known skaters. I wish I had known about this sooner. I'm still in my ballet summer phase.

Everyone else should get to Aston Pa.

Joe
 

dwiggin3

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Oh Goody!!!...my mom and I are going up on Saturday early AM and plan to watch....sounds GREAT!!!!!

Darby
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Sylvia, this looks like a high-powered event. Do skaters compete for cash prizes in these affairs?

Mathman
 

KwanFan1212

Joey Votto Fangirl
Final Flight
Joined
Jun 24, 2003
I can't wait to hear more about this competition next week. I almost went to it because it sounded like a great competition (and it would have been quite a drive but totally worth it) but I have stuff going on next weekend for my friend's wedding (which I am in so I kinda have to be there). Bummer. I would love to see this one in person. Best of luck to my faves Amanda & Mark, Ryan Jahnke, and Mauro Bruni! :rock:
 

dr.frog

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Mathman said:
Sylvia, this looks like a high-powered event. Do skaters compete for cash prizes in these affairs?

No, there is no prize money. In fact, the skaters have to pay an entry fee to compete here, to defray the costs of holding the competition.

The Liberty competition is what's known as a non-qualifying competition, sponsored by a local skating club rather than by the national federation. It is run primarily for the benefit of the hundreds of lower-level skaters who enter, not for the handful of elites. The reason why this particular club competition attracts more elite skaters than most is that the organizers arrange for national and international judges to offer program critiques to the skaters after each event. So quite a number of national-level skaters show up here to try out their new programs and get feedback on them. Usually the USFSA also uses this as one of the competitions where they monitor skaters who are under consideration for international assignments, too. (The other monitoring competitions typically include the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championship, Indy Challenge for pairs, and Skate Detroit and Golden West for singles.)
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
According to Heather's website, the local cable station CN8 will be airing some of the competition.

http://www.heatherw.com/mk/sch.htm

It's all set to record onto my TiVo. If anyone is interested enough, I could copy it to DVD. I record onto DVD-R format. PM me if interested. Not looking to make money - just want to be re-imbursed $1 for the DVD + postage.
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
UPDATE: I've received official word from the Liberty summer competition organizer about a time change for the Senior Men's FS on Saturday, July 16. This apparently was done to accommodate CN8's taping schedule. They will be taping in Rink 2 of the IceWorks complex (in Aston, PA) and Lou Tilley and Nancy Kerrigan are the announcers.

The Senior Men's free skate has been moved to *1:45 PM* on Saturday, July 16, after the Senior Ladies free skate [2 groups, 9:15 am-1:30 pm] is complete.

These Saturday schedule changes should show up on the official site at some point: http://www.libertyskating.com/

I've also been informed that Emily Hughes (assigned to the Cup of Russia GP) and Jane Bugaeva, both of whom were not on my original "unofficial" roster posted above, registered for Liberty (I've just edited their names into my list).

The "unofficial" Liberty senior men's roster currently stands at 17 skaters: Jordan Brauninger (assigned to the Andorra JGP), Mauro Bruni, Wesley Campbell, Derrick Delmore, Ryan Jahnke (China GP), Nicholas LaRoche, Parker Pennington, Craig Ratterree (Montreal JGP), Shaun Rogers (Nebelhorn Trophy), Scott Smith, Michael Solonoski, Tommy Steenberg, Rohene Ward, David Weintraub, and Jason Wong.
Non-U.S. skaters: Canada's Keegan Murphy and New Zealand's Joel Watson (it's been reported elsewhere online that Canada's Shawn Sawyer, who was included in my original list, didn't register for Liberty this year).

If you're coming to Liberty to see any one skater, just be aware that it's not uncommon for skaters to withdraw from summer competitions if they feel their programs are not quite ready, etc.
 
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dwiggin3

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Silvia,
so the Sr. ladies are back to 9:15 am? I'm confused....can you clarify? My mom and I are driving from N. VA that morning and it's an early one...
Thanks
 

Sylvia

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 25, 2003
dwiggin3 said:
so the Sr. ladies are back to 9:15 am? I'm confused....can you clarify? My mom and I are driving from N. VA that morning and it's an early one...
The 2 groups of Senior Ladies' FS were always scheduled for Saturday morning to early afternoon -- no schedule change for them, just Senior Men's FS (don't miss the guys!).
 

skate_love

Spectator
Joined
Nov 19, 2004
Results/Reports

Does anyone have any reports or any results?
Specifically Lauren Ryan - Ice Works (Intermediate Ladies); Johanssen - Ice Works (Junior men); and Ken Rose - Canada (Senior Men)?
Thanks
 

orchid

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
A report from Liberty competition

Skating Note of Interest... (Credit: Blazing Blades)


Last night at the Liberty figure skating competiton in Philadelphia, PA, in Ladies Group A, Emily Hughes blew everyone away with speed, power, accuracy. Also credit her with a new move; an incredible Charlotte that was deep on an inside edge as she deliberately touched the ice, and then somehow went into a gorgeous layback from that entrance! The whole audience gasped.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
I'm not surprised at Emile. She is a very motivated skater.

Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between the Groups like is Group A a better group than Group C?

Joe
 

emma

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
orchid said:
Skating Note of Interest... (Credit: Blazing Blades)


Last night at the Liberty figure skating competiton in Philadelphia, PA, in Ladies Group A, Emily Hughes blew everyone away with speed, power, accuracy. Also credit her with a new move; an incredible Charlotte that was deep on an inside edge as she deliberately touched the ice, and then somehow went into a gorgeous layback from that entrance! The whole audience gasped.

wow...that sounds really awesome!
 

nicole_l

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between the Groups like is Group A a better group than Group C?
Joe, groups are separated by the referee before the competition. They are usually by age but sometimes (especially at big competitions like Liberty) random.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Joesitz said:
Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between the Groups like is Group A a better group than Group C?

No, it's a random draw, or maybe the nationally ranked skaters are seeded as at regionals. They just have to split the groups when they get too big -- at regionals the maximum is 18 per group, and Liberty seems to have been sticking pretty close to that.

The only difference was, the last two intermediate ladies short program groups (H and I, I think) were for juvenile-level skaters who had not passed the intermediate test but who wanted to skate up for the experience of competing a short program.

Some club competitions divide the lower levels by age. Juvenile vs. Open Juvenile does this officially already.

And at other club competitions I've also seen preliminary divided into two levels, with and without doubles allowed, and pre-preliminary with and without axels. So yeah, in that situation the skaters in one preliminary event would generally be better than those in the other. Although there might be enough entries in each of those events that they need to divide them into more than one competition at each level as well, with or without final rounds.
 
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