Recapping the U.S. Love at Lake Placid

I’m going to take advantage of this tiny lull in the JGP action to do a few different posts over the next few days... catching up on recent finishes as well as upcoming events (both competitive and otherwise).


I’ll start with the JGP Lake Placid recap (from Labor Day weekend):

BOYS: If you only know Josh Farris’ skating from his disappointing results thus far at Senior Nationals—one time of which happened as the guy skated with AN ANKLE FRACTURE-- you don’t know his skating yet. With two successful triple axels and a successful, first-ever quad toe in his free skate, Farris ran away with the gold medal here. In silver was Keiji Tanaka (joining the vest-and-tie club for his FS to The Untouchables), and bronze went to the teeny tiny Canadian Roman Sadovsky (skating to Man (more like Boy) in the Iron Mask). Further down in the standings was the other U.S. rep James Schetelich, finishing 12th with his FS to The Mission.

GIRLS: All three U.S. girls did quite well here, with Courtney Hicks earning a silver for her interp of Concierto de Aranjuez, Angela Wang pulling all the way up to a bronze from down in 8th, and Kiri Baga holding down 5th. But none of them came close to stopping Satoko Miyahara of Japan, a tiny whisper of a girl who has the triple/triples (of course) AND showcases them in a lovely manner—currently using an all-piano Romeo & Juliet (the Rota version) as her free-skate vehicle. (By the way, if you’re curious how Baga’s pairing with Taylor Toth is going thus far, check out this link from the recently-held Detroit Open.

PAIRS: The Canadian team of Purdy/Marinaro were impressive enough in the FS to claim gold over SP winners Davankova/Deputat of Russia. Then came three of the four U.S. teams: Aaron/Settlage (skating to Carmen) for bronze, Denney/Frazier (using La Strada) for 4th, and Pfund/Reiss with 5th. Oltmanns/Santillan, the 4th U.S. team, finished 12th.

DANCE: U.S.’s Aldridge/Eaton used a Fiddler on the Roof FD to surpass the SD leaders, Russia’s Kosigina/ Moroshkin (brandishing an MJ medley). Canada’s Poulin/ Servant took bronze with a unique (retro) look, unique (retro?) music choices, and an FD that felt more “dancy” to me than the others. Further back, in 6th and 7th place, were U.S. teams Pogrebinsky/Gudis (to an FD which included Masquerade Waltz) and Heritage/Fast (who used a Beatles medley as their FD.)