Short Program Notes from U.S. Nats: Week 1

Some notes I took while watching the SPs yesterday:

+ Castile/Okolski blew their SBS 3Salchow completely. Currently in 5th… actually not too bad for them.

+ Denney/Barrett—that death spiral’s gotta go, but otherwise—NICE! Currently in 1st.

+ Inoue/Baldwin—irony alert: their SBS jump (a 2ax, not 3T) was one of their best elements with a very nice exit. Who’d of known their SBS spin would be such a hot mess? And, sigh, another fall on the throw 3 ax. I actually hope they land it in the finals… it would be a nice way to go out. (Shhh… I didn’t say that.) Currently in 4th.

+ McLaughlin/Brubaker—over on Laura’s splendid Required Elements blog, I saw a Tweet from McLaughlin prior to the event that said “Let’s do this.” If THAT was “this”, guys, please don’t do that again. EVER. Currently in 7th.

+ Yankow/Coughlin—Really nice effort for them. They did well in the short last year but then couldn’t follow-up in the free skate, so I hope things are different for them this time. Currently in 2nd.

+ Evora/Ladwig—Not clean by any stretch, but not a disaster either… and that was good enough yesterday. Currently in 3rd.

As for the men…

+ Weir—clean jumps by and large, good job, vogue, vogue, strike a pose… (hey, I’m just typing up what I wrote.) Currently 3rd.

+ Abbott—BEAUTY!!!! Currently 1st. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make some errors today. Sounds like neither he nor Lysacek really want to win this event so much as make the team… I think they fear peaking too soon (still). Maybe that means Weir will get his title back?

+ Bradley— too bad going for the quad combo apparently meant sacrificing his other two jumps. (Has he been hanging with Tomas Verner lately?) Oh, and, um, Ryan… your points called, and said they’d like to be taken off the table now. Currently 6th.

+ Lysacek—the FireCondor routine was essentially par for the course (ca-CAW!), and that flipout on the 3Ax was bound to happen sooner or later. Currently 2nd.

+ Mroz—not much to say here, except that, um, Brandon… Ryan Bradley’s double axel pop called, and said thanks for making him look good. Currently 10th.

+ Mahbanoozadeh—Was that clean? It WAS clean! I may have to start working on his nickname again… BahhhNOOOZ… Currently 5th.

+ Rippon—Yay… YAY!!... (gasp) Oh nooooo… please don’t cry… at least you didn’t crash into the wall, go over it, and land in the camera pit…Currently 4th.

Do the top three guys have it locked up already, with so many points between Weir and Rippon? Will we be sending two young pairs to Vancouver, or just one? Stay tuned…!