All right, 2010 Nats.
SP
To start: when I complained that Juke was Junior-ish and cheesy, this SP was the one I had in mind. Even his costume for this is better than Juke! Jump notes: this is where his technique made things harder on him. Because he was rotating later, it was easier for his free leg to get "stuck", especially here where it looks like he's grown a lot recently and hasn't quite grown into his legs yet. Triple flip, though, is a stunner already for that age/height/level. Spin notes: faster, but still slow compared to now. I'm interested to note that he used that outside edge feature on the sit rather than the camel. He did in the 2009 programs too, although I think by 2011 he'd switched to using it on the camel. I wonder if he can still do it? Something handy to have in the back pocket.
I'd also forgotten it was as late as 2010 that you had two step sequences in a program! Circular and straight line. Took up a lot of program time. The choreography fits the music well and is appropriate (and his wave to the crowd is adorable).
Overall: STILL BETTER THAN JUKE. No sprinklers. And I notice two very familiar names on that leaderboard...
FS:
Oh! I forgot he did a Nutcracker program! This one though is much less...entertaining, I suppose. He's on the music, the choreography goes nicely with it (although there's not as much choreography as we would later come to expect), but it's just...he's not feeling it, I think. Which is fine, since he was only fifteen here. It just feels a little...businesslike, I think. Jumps-wise, his flutz still isn't great here, and you can see his technique falling away as he gets tired, which nearly trips him up on the second Lutz.
And I had forgotten, but this was another 2+2 = 1 for Jason! 2nd in the short (behind Max) and 2nd in the free (behind Josh) and an overall victory margin of just 0.19!!!
Also: PROTOCOL BONUS! Since we're at Junior Nationals and the internet doesn't forget, we get protocol context for these!
Short program: noted that Josh seems to have fallen on his 3A and done only a 3Lz-2T with some other kind of problem. Max had a no value CCSp and only a level 1 CiSt and 2 SlSt, so clearly, it could have been a lot bigger margin. For Jason, he got a < on the 3T on the end of the combo, level 3s on both step sequences and a level 3 sit spin. He also had the highest PCS, 28.90, a full point ahead of Max's (27.79). Josh was third with a 27.18.
Free skate: Now the tables have turned. Josh had a very good skate, clean 3A, all level 4s except for his SlSt which was a 3. Interestingly, Max's protocol doesn't look too bad. He must have stepped out on the 3A or something (no fall deduction), but he was whittled to death by low GOE. Again all level 4s, except the SlSt which was a 3. Jason actually had two level 3s (the combo spin and the steps - guess the panel didn't want level 4 steps that day) and two level 4s. His GOE is overall not bad, although clearly a few judges were docking for the flutz.
The killer comes on TES/PCS. Josh won the TES with 73.79. Max was second with 72.49, while Jason had 69.98. But on the PCS, Jason wins with a 63.14, Josh tight behind him with 63.00, while Max gets murdered with a 57.20, almost six points behind Jason.
So, I think this is the first example of Jason winning an event on PCS? Can we call it that? I'll call it that.
(Non-Jason aside: I've always though Max not going up to Seniors after this season was a result of Tom Z being more focused on Jeremy and Josh. Now I wonder if it was tactical to get him away from Josh and Jason and the unfavourable PCS comparison, in an attempt to build his own PCS rep.)
