As usual, I am doing some extra predictions. Last year, I made predictions on the whole field. But this year, I have decided to only do a top 15, as there are so many new names that I am unfamiliar with.
I knew who I was going to put on the Ladies podium, but it was a real dilemma which way around to put them. Being a fan of figure skating has turned me into a real Russophile, and I would have loved to put Polina at the top. But, she doesn’t seem to have the same form this season as Gracie and Ashley. And speaking of them two, I kept swapping them around. But, in the end, I went for Ashley, because Gracie is only coming back from injury.
Again, I knew who I wanted to make up the rest of my Top 6, but it was just a case of order. They all have a point to prove. Mirai needs to make the point that last year wasn’t a one-off, and that she should have been sent to Worlds. Samantha needs to continue to make the point that it was wrong to keep her in Juniors for so long. And Courtney needs to make the point that she exists, because she is not getting the attention she deserves. (Although I didn’t notice it until afterwards, I actually put these 3 girls in order of age!)
The rest of my Ladies list was pretty much left as the PB order. However, I did make one change – I moved Ashley Cain up to 11th. I like Ashley, and I would have loved to have put her up even higher. But, I just couldn’t justify it, as her PB’s are a lot lower than the girls in the top 10 and, at the end of the day, they all beat her at last year’s Nationals.
For the Men, it was really funny because if you bring up their ISU Bios and sort them by PB’s, they are all in pairs! And to get the top 10 order I wanted, all you had to do was swap the 2 skaters in each pair around!
Below 10th, I just kept them in PB order because Rozzano, then Omori and then Dolensky seemed about right, and I had never heard tell of the guys below them.
With the Pairs, I didn’t make too many deviations from the PB list. The top 2 were in the order I wanted. But, it was 3rd to 5th that I dithered about. I have only seen Kayne / O’Shea once (4 Continents last year), so I wasn’t sure whether that was enough to judge them on. But I have been impressed with how Aaron / Settlage have been going in the GP Series this year, so I put them 3rd instead.
Castelli / Tran were a real dilemma. Both of them have had great success with previous partners, but are an unproven quantity together. If I had seen them already, I might have put them higher (probably 4th, ahead of Kayne / O’Shea). But I haven’t, so I didn’t!
With Dance, the PB order turned out to be the order I wanted for the Top 6 anyway. So, I didn’t have to do any changing. However, I decided to try out an experiment for the lower order. There are quite a few new partnerships in this year’s American Championships. So, to see what would happen, I added together the PB’s of each skater and their most recent previous partner, and worked out the average. And I slotted them into the list according to this.
And may I take this opportunity to wish all the best to
cheerknithanson’s friend, Gabriela Morrell ZUCKER. Because of my experiment, she and Andrejs are 15th on my Dance prediction list. But, I do hope they get higher.
For those that are able to watch the Championships, I hope you enjoy it. And may all the competitors skate their best!
CaroLiza_fan
AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ladies
1. Ashley WAGNER
2. Gracie GOLD
3. Polina EDMUNDS
4. Mirai NAGASU
5. Samantha CESARIO
6. Courtney HICKS
Just for fun
7. Karen CHEN
8. Caroline ZHANG
9. Christina GAO
10. Hannah MILLER
11. Ashley CAIN
12. Amber GLENN
13. Angela WANG
14. Leah KEISER
15. Mariah BELL
Men
1. Jason BROWN
2. Jeremy ABBOTT
3. Max AARON
4. Adam RIPPON
5. Richard DORNBUSH
6. Ross MINER
Just for fun
7. Joshua FARRIS
8. Stephen CARRIERE
9. Grant HOCHSTEIN
10. Nathan CHEN
11. Douglas RAZZANO
12. Shotaro OMORI
13. Timothy DOLENSKY
14. Alexander JOHNSON
15. Jordan MOELLER
Pairs
1. Haven DENNEY / Brandon FRAZIER
2. Alexa SCIMECA / Chris KNIERIM
3. Madeline AARON / Max SETTLAGE
4. Tarah KAYNE / Daniel O’SHEA
5. Marissa CASTELLI / Mervin TRAN
6. Jessica Noelle CALALANG / Zack SIDHU
Just for fun
7. Gretchen DONLAN / Nathan BARTHOLOMAY
8. Anya DAVIDOVICH / AJ REISS
9. DeeDee LENG / Simon SHNAPIR
10. Alexandria SHAUGHNESSY / James MORGAN
11. Olivia OLTMANNS / Joshua SANTILLAN
12. Cali FUJIMOTO / Nicholas BARSI-RHYNE
Dance
1. Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES
2. Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE
3. Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI
4. Kaitlin HAWAYEK / Jean-Luc BAKER
5. Alexandra ALDRIDGE / Daniel EATON
6. Anastasia CANNUSCIO / Colin MCMANUS
Just for fun
7. Anastasia OLSON / Ian LORELLO
8. Ginna HOPTMAN / Pavel FILCHENKOV
9. Danielle GAMELIN / Alexander GAMELIN
10. Kristen NARDOZZI / Nick TRAXLER
11. Tory PATSIS / Nathaniel FAST
12. Elicia REYNOLDS / Stephen REYNOLDS
13. Charlotte MAXWELL / Ryan DEVEREAUX
14. Kseniya PONOMARYOVA / Oleg ALTUKHOV
15. Gabriela Morrell ZUCKER / Andrejs SITIKS
I will miss seeing her beauty. 
hwell:
]
Can we not extend the season by a month or 2, and have the more significant competitions a bit more spread out...?!)
: heart vs. reason vs. instinct equals a lot of editing 
- and now, there's not much time for editing left.
