2024 U.S. Midwestern Sectional Singles & U.S. Ice Dance Final
- Thread starter gsk8
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Gosh, I just wanted to send a big hug to her! My heart breaks for her. The wipeout on the spin seemed to zap any confidence left in her. I still love her skating so much and hope she can put her injuries and difficult skates behind her!
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I have not finished, but F/D rhythm dance was amazing. Loved the music, loved the choreography, loved everything about it.Both teams have talent. F/D are quite magical together. And their West Side Story FD is very beautiful and moving. It took so long for F/D's score to come up, which smacks of nitpicking and trying to keep their score down to ensure placement behind W/T. If W/T are scored 111+ in the FD, then F/D deserve at least 110+ if not higher.
Even in the RD, the judges assessed Bella a full point for a fall, but there wasn't a fall. She was in a choreo move in a split position with Vanya twirling her around. Bella did not come up smoothly, she leaned a bit forward before rising to her feet, but it wasn't a fall. The best equivalent I can see is that it was like a lean or a hand down on a jump landing. How is it a fall if she's already down on the ice in a choreo move?
The sport is so unfair. If you examine the scores between W/T and F/D, they were obviously closely scored. Except at Dallas Classic, where both teams debuted, and F/D were assessed music & choreo violations in both programs, which was confounding. Both of their programs were choreographed by top ice dance choreographers who are former ice dancers.
Dallas Classic wasn't made available for fans to view, but apparently Bella had a problem on a twizzle in the RD, and they really dinged her by a lot. So that was the reason for the difference in scores there. F/D made changes, came back at Lake Placid, and there was only 2+ points difference between them and W/T overall, with only 1+ difference between their FDs. How does that suddenly increase at the finals to over 7 pts difference overall, and 3+ pts difference in the FD? To me that smacks of unfairness. Even the icedance.com editor, in her review of Lake Placid, said she felt F/ D were not being given enough credit for their wonderfully emotional WSS FD. She felt that Bella & Vanya deserved to win at Lake Placid. I would agree.
Obviously, it's very close between these two teams. They have comparable skill sets, except that Bella/ Vanya have much more of a connection. Their chemistry is palpable and compelling. Meanwhile, I found W/T's tango somewhat boring. It's effective as a genre for a new team to sink their teeth into, and it highlights their tech skills. But I don't feel a real connection between them yet. I've always admired Katarina's talent, yet her skating has never drawn me in. Still, W/T are promising, but so are F/D. Nationals is gonna be a battle. I just wish the favoritism and unfairness in the scoring was not part of it.
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I wouldn’t have taken you for a Def Lepperd fan, @monnvine! It must have been those pink sparkly gloves on Isabella, yes, I can see where those would be more your style
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I like F/D but all those music cuts made me think I was watching a Free Dance from the late 1970's. They're very good but it was a bit uncontrolled for me. I preferred the sophistication of W/T. Their program appeared much more fluid and dancey. But congratulations to all the medalists. I wonder where these skaters will place at Nationals?
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I'm sure I could look it up and figure it out, but did will this qualify them to nationals?Both Wolfkostin & Tsarevski and Flores & Desyatov were great in the free dance but something about F&D just compel me to love them. They skate with such abandon. I love it!
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Yes, from what I understand as it stands now all but the last team qualified for Nationals (6 teams out of 7).
Good free skate by Sonja Hilmer. I wanted her to skate 110 in this segment and she did just that. Now I just have to wait patiently for her to hopefully qualify 
Edit: Sonja has officially made it to Nationals. She finished in
and her score of 163.31 gives her the second highest non-automatic qualifying spot!!! 
There were three spots up for grabs, I believe. Now, she just has to fine tune her elements a bit, more to aim to score over 170, to be around 10th at Nationals, where she was last year.
Edit: Sonja has officially made it to Nationals. She finished in
and her score of 163.31 gives her the second highest non-automatic qualifying spot!!! There were three spots up for grabs, I believe. Now, she just has to fine tune her elements a bit, more to aim to score over 170, to be around 10th at Nationals, where she was last year.
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Good free skate by Sonja Hilmer. I wanted her to skate 110 in this segment and she did just that. Now I just have to wait patiently for her to hopefully qualify
Edit: Sonja has officially made it to Nationals. She finished in
Do the 3 spots reflect the WD by Bradie? Or will there now be 4 non-auto spots?
If Bradie WD, it goes from 3 to 4 spots.
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She already withdrew. So 4 spots.
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She announced it on IG. Broke her ankle, withdrawing from "the rest of the season."I didn’t know this.
she was undefeated too!! Winning two events! She would have been a podium contender at the GP events. So sad!!I think she gets injured from overtraining
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I disagree, but to each their own. FYI: there are only two music cuts and three music selections, wisely chosen from the WSS sound track to express the love story between Maria & Tony. I think choreographer, Kaitlyn Weaver, did an excellent job, which enhances F/D's strengths, and also sparks their steady growth as ice dancers.
W/T and F/D are both very talented, young teams with outstanding potential; they simply have different styles (and that's a positive). Both teams should be able to strongly challenge the mid-tier domestic teams ahead of them, especially over the next few seasons. W/T are still new to each other, but they match well physically and in terms of talent. One of the reasons the tango works so well for W/T is that it highlights their tech skills, and thus it's a safe genre for a technically proficient team who are getting to know each other.
F/D are emotionally and physically well-matched, along with possessing equal ice dance skill, which is allowing them to grow together very quickly. Bella was great with Dima, and she's as good, and even better in terms of having a palpable emotional connection with Vanya.
There are a lot of very good U.S. teams, of course. But some are not completely equal in talent, or great physical matches. Internationally, Next-Gen, I see Lajoie/ Lagha stepping up to take over among the top ranks when the next wave of retirements occur. I also think Finland's Orihara/ Pirinen have great potential.
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