Senior Pairs FS

[katymay]

Did she really say yes?

You know, I can't think of anything more romantic than purposing to someone after you've just put down a good example of what you're spending your life doing together. I really can't. I'm so happy I got to watch it unspoiled. I think Rena and John's skating has taken a step up too.
Though even so, I hope they decide to take 4CC off so Evora and Ladwig can go. I'll really feel for them otherwise; they will have barely missed that team, and you have to admire their ability to fight.

I don't get the impression she was all that thrilled with the proposal....I think she said, "yes," but really means..."we'll see..."

 

[NJSk8Fan]

I think I knew John was proposing to Rena before she realised what he was doing....I saw him down on his knee and I yelled out loud "he's proposing!!!" How wonderful!!!

 

[chuckm]

I thought the 'proposal' was just a little tacky. They have supposedly been engaged for the past 3 years, so when I saw him down on his knees, I thought (what the [unprintable word]!). They hadn't got their marks yet, and I wondered if it was a ploy by John to get the crowd behind them and get the judges to push I&B into the top spot (didn't work, did it, John). I thought Rena was clearly embarrassed.

 

[katymay]

I agree

I thought the 'proposal' was just a little tacky. They have supposedly been engaged for the past 3 years, so when I saw him down on his knees, I thought (what the [unprintable word]!). They hadn't got their marks yet, and I wondered if it was a ploy by John to get the crowd behind them and get the judges to push I&B into the top spot (didn't work, did it, John). I thought Rena was clearly embarrassed.

I thought it was a bit contrived too...and I didn't think Rena looked overjoyed-in fact, she skated away from him, and waiting for the scores they didn't look to cozy.

 

[emma]

I have no idea what goes on between them - but in public events - he is so all over her and extroverted and she is so not the same. Truly, though, I wish them well, and hope Rena was moved and happy about today (and if not, that they can 'work through it'). Having said that, I've admired them both for years, and thought they should be proud when they retire. HOWEVER, after seeing their LP today and the proposal (which seemed like an ending of one phase - skating, and beginning of a new ) I was like: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - you look so good - if you can do this in two weeks, imagine.....anyway, good luck to them in whatever they choose.

 

[PolymerBob]

Does anyone know the final results? According to NBC only five couples skated and the USFSA has nothing up.
Anyone know the actual final standings of ALL the pairs who skated?

Here are the results and scores:

Names Points

1 Keauna McLaughlin / Rockne Brubaker 190.74
2 Rena Inoue / John Baldwin 183.17
3 Brooke Castile / Ben Okolski 175.07
4 Tiffany Vise / Derek Trent 161.20
5 Amanda Evora / Mark Ladwig 158.94
6 Caitlin Yankowskas / John Coughlin 153.80
7 Naomi Nari Nam / Themistocles Leftheris 145.89
8 Chloe Katz / Joseph Lynch 142.29
9 Bianca Butler / Joseph Jacobsen 136.65
10 MeeRan Trombley / Laureano Ibarra 130.29
11 Kaela Pflumm / Christopher Pottenger 127.27
12 Katie Beriau / Alexander Merritt 125.52
13 Amber Wehrle / Nicholas Kole 125.17
14 Laura Lepzinski / Ethan Burgess 119.40
15 Kendra Moyle / Steven Pottenger 117.98

 

[badknees]

Hey, Beep beep

I almost got this. I downloaded JLC and then clicked on KPVI-TV under the K's, but it's not skating. Did you mean one of the other NBC's??

Thanks so much, been outside the U.S for awhile, wish I had known about this before!

 

[Pikachuusb]

I thought the 'proposal' was just a little tacky. They have supposedly been engaged for the past 3 years, so when I saw him down on his knees, I thought (what the [unprintable word]!). They hadn't got their marks yet, and I wondered if it was a ploy by John to get the crowd behind them and get the judges to push I&B into the top spot (didn't work, did it, John). I thought Rena was clearly embarrassed.

Thank you for saying the same thing that my boyfriend & I said when he did that. She didnt look thrilled and it came across as an extra nudge for sentimentality to try and give them something extra for the win. Im glad we werent the only ones seeing it that way.

 

[1795]

I don't get the impression she was all that thrilled with the proposal....I think she said, "yes," but really means..."we'll see..."

hahah
sad to say but yes
but...seems like he really loves her
i agree to the others who thought it was tacky
but it was sweet...

 

[JonnyCoop]

I don't get the impression she was all that thrilled with the proposal....I think she said, "yes," but really means..."we'll see..."

I wasn't sure what to make of her reaction, either. I imagine she was more than a little stunned, but I kind of got the impression she wasn't sure about the whole thing either. Romantic as those types of proposals may seem, I don't think it's very sweet to put someone on the spot like that; I mean, if she'd said no, she'd've come off as the b**** of all time. I would imagine if you surveyed 100 women, the percentage of them who would prefer NOT to proposed to in such a manner would be in the 90s. [Tho I suppose that would depend on who's doing the proposing, , but I'm talking about in general here.]

Oh, yeah, there WAS a competition, wasn't there; I nearly forgot, what with the whole John & Rena thing....

I must say -- Pairs Skating in the US has come a LONG way in the last several years. It has probably been 20 years since I have seen the top 5 in US pairs look this good. Long about 1989, 1990, up until about last year, I don't know WHAT was going on, but to me, it would be like, the winners ranged from passable to pretty good, 2nd place was usually fairly decent, but long about 3rd or 4th place, things started to get scary and I couldn't believe we were actually going to send them out internationally. (There were a couple of years there -- and I'm not going to mention names or years-- where IMHO even the SECOND place pair did not seem even close to Worlds level). But these days we are lookin' pretty darn good in this category, thank you very much! It is so nice to see style and polish come back to US Pairs.


GREAT JOB EVERYONE!!

 

[Nadine]

Unfortunately, I missed the pairs televised FS yesterday afternoon (as well as the ladies televised SPs; thank god I got to watch the ladies televised FS last night though).

Icenetwork.com has been a godsend, as it has allowed me to watch the pairs SPs & ladies SPs, but unfortunately it has not allowed me to watch the pairs FS, as it states groups 3 & 4 will not be available for viewing until the 29th.

What I *did* view of McLaughlin & Brubaker was quite enjoyable, and gives me great hope for the future of American pairs. I wish them & the rest of the pairs the best, with a thumbs up to Vise & Trent on landing the first ever throw quad jump in competition this past fall)!

 

[cassieandcheetah]

Castile/Okolski vs Nam/Leftheris vs. MacLaughlin/Brubaker

I was just wondering....am I the only one that thinks Castile and Okolski are just simply electrifying? They may not have the sbs triple jumps yet, but oh my god, they are sooo exciting to watch that it's breathtaking. Their choreography is so original and they're such great performance that you never feel like they're just gliding on the ice routinely reeling off one element after another....I especially love watching Brooke! She's so beautiful and so expressive, almost as emotive as an ice dancer.....Doesn't anyone else think they have this star quality to them that's kind of rare in pairs nowadays?

As for Naomi and Themi...It's funny, I remember in 2006 Nationals after their free dance, which was more or less flawless (without any major error), I remember thinking, my goodness they're going to make it to the olympics, only to see them wind up 5th or something like that. And it happened again this year too! I just saw their free program through icenetwork and they again had a pretty good long program (granted one of their throws was a double flip, but she did land her throw triple salchow, and they also added a Triple twist!!!), and yet after more or less landing all their elements they wound up in like 7th. I just don't understand how that happens? Is it just a matter of speed adn polish because I too see that they're kind of slower on the ice than the other couples...but it beats me why they get marked so low....

As for Rockne and Keauna, I like them, they're good technicians, but otherwise I find them kind of boring. I'm sure they'll eventually become better performance, but I have to say they certainly weren't the most exciting team to watch at this year's nationals...

 

[dorispulaski]

It's easy to explain C&O's problems. Their base score is 53.40 as designed. Even if skated perfectly, they have left themselves with too far a distance to make up.

http://www.usfigureskating.org/content/events/200708/uschamps/protocols/seniorpairs-protocols.pdf

Compare that with M&B's base score as skated, which is 57.20-and if they had managed to tack the 2t on the 3S, would have been 58.50. (I'm following the US Figure Skating protocols here.) Compare that with I&B's base score as skated, which is 60.25, and would have been 61.55 if they had completed the double toe on their combination.

Here's what C&O need to do to improve their base score:

2 of their lifts are only level 3, instead of level 4. Their pair spin is only a level2. Their step sequence is only a level 1. They should replace their throw 3S with either a flip or lutz throw, if they can do it. So, without requiring them to do a triple jump they could have a base value of 58.0. If they can't do the flip or lutz throw, it would 57.0. They can't afford to leave that many points lying on the table.

Now as to N&L:
Their LP base score is 51.75 as skated. They leave 2.5 points on the table for not doing the triple flip throw. Their triple twist is a level 1, so they only get .5 more points than if they did a double twist level 4. They do an inside rather than an outside death spiral. They did a double salchow double toe as a combination, which scores lower than what C&O did. Their axel twist lift is only a level 1, so they leave 1.5 points there. Their pair spin is level 3.

Again, too many points to catch up there.

This is why it is worthwhile reading the protocols--you can understand exactly where the points were lost.

I'm with JohnnyCoop here-US pairs are looking a lot better than the used to. When you consider that all 3 top pairs and N&L all lost significant training time, it's even more amazing.

And : to I&B for getting those smaller skills up to level 3 & 4 with only 2 weeks to prepare!

 

[cassieandcheetah]

It's easy to explain C&O's problems. Their base score is 53.40 as designed. Even if skated perfectly, they have left themselves with too far a distance to make up.

http://www.usfigureskating.org/content/events/200708/uschamps/protocols/seniorpairs-protocols.pdf

Compare that with M&B's base score as skated, which is 57.20-and if they had managed to tack the 2t on the 3S, would have been 58.50. (I'm following the US Figure Skating protocols here.) Compare that with I&B's base score as skated, which is 60.25, and would have been 61.55 if they had completed the double toe on their combination.

Here's what C&O need to do to improve their base score:

2 of their lifts are only level 3, instead of level 4. Their pair spin is only a level2. Their step sequence is only a level 1. They should replace their throw 3S with either a flip or lutz throw, if they can do it. So, without requiring them to do a triple jump they could have a base value of 58.0. If they can't do the flip or lutz throw, it would 57.0. They can't afford to leave that many points lying on the table.

Now as to N&L:
Their LP base score is 51.75 as skated. They leave 2.5 points on the table for not doing the triple flip throw. Their triple twist is a level 1, so they only get .5 more points than if they did a double twist level 4. They do an inside rather than an outside death spiral. They did a double salchow double toe as a combination, which scores lower than what C&O did. Their axel twist lift is only a level 1, so they leave 1.5 points there. Their pair spin is level 3.

Again, too many points to catch up there.

This is why it is worthwhile reading the protocols--you can understand exactly where the points were lost.

I'm with JohnnyCoop here-US pairs are looking a lot better than the used to. When you consider that all 3 top pairs and N&L all lost significant training time, it's even more amazing.

And : to I&B for getting those smaller skills up to level 3 & 4 with only 2 weeks to prepare!

thanks for this...but how about Brooke and Ben's stage presence? All the technical stuff aside, I just think they're a joy to watch in "almost" the same way that G & G was....

 

[Tonichelle]

I love Brooke and Ben, but to be competitive they have to stay injury free and work on their levels...

 

[emma]

It is great to see US pairs coming along --- I doubt somehow that N/L will continue upward only because of her hip problems, but I do enjoy them. C/O i too love .... but I have to say that for me, the most pleasant surprise of this competition was I/B - 'old timers' but there was just something - imo - better about them. I almost wished they had taken a full month to train and not just two weeks -- I would love to see them end their career with another nationals and a world medal, i just admire how they keep at it.

 

[Tonichelle]

yeah, I always found it interesting that Naomi chose pairs over singles skating because it was easier on her hip, I would think the throws alone would do more damage than a 7 triple jump program would.

 

[dorispulaski]

Toni, I wondered about that too.

For cassieandcheetah, stage presence isn't exactly a huge part of the PCS marks.

In the LP, M&B scored 59.92, C&O scored 57.70, and I&B scored 55.54. In the SP, I&B scored 27.09, M&B scored 26.75 and C&O scored 25.71.


On PCS, the top 3 pairs were quite similar. I&B came out ahead in the SP in PCS with M&B seconc & C&O third. In the LP, M&B were first, C&O second and I&B third.

The PCS components are skating skills, transitions, performance/execution, choreography, & interpretation. C&O's LP this year didn't have a lot of transitions-other than the tricks, most all their skating was crossovers. They were not very quiet on the blade in the LP, and that didn't help their skating skills mark. It's hard to judge from at home, but I think M&B were the fastest in the LP, which gets into the skating skills marks. It has to have hurt a bit that C&O could only manage a level one step sequence-I'm assuming that something happened there that dropped the level. That kind of mistake finds its way into the skating skills & performance marks.

If there is a place for stage presence, it might be in the interpretation and performance marks, but there are 3 other components (skating skills, transitions & choreography) where stage presence is not a big deal.

G&G had lovely quiet blades and perfect unison, neither of which C&O have. So I don't find them very reminiscent of G&G except that Zoueva, their current choreographer, was G&G's choreographer.

I think Brooke is a lovely girl. And she has very nice arms and upper body movements. She reminds me of Jill Trenary, another lovely well turned out young woman with iffy jumps whose skating did little for me, rather than Katia Gordeeva.

However, If everyone agreed on skaters, what would we have to talk about?