As the summer off-season transitions into what’s really become a pre-season — with a significant number of elite competitors across all disciplines tackling summer competitions in preparation for the Grand Prix and Challenger Series of the fall — Two for the Ice will be presenting a series of event recaps, from quick analysis to on-site coverage as possible. We begin with the first major outings for pairs and ice dance: Skate Detroit and the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships.
Though the senior pairs field at July’s Skate Detroit dropped from an initially registered 10 to 6 — including a late injury scratch for 2015 national bronze medalists Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea — the roster presented a fairly intriguing microcosm of the U.S. (and Canadian) pairs scene as the new season nears.
Charted here is a comparison of Skate Detroit scores with scores from the 2015 U.S. and Canadian national championships, offered as a general peak mark for the teams in question. With the caveat that each event featured different panels, different material, and perhaps differing levels of technical success by team from one competition to another, the range between an early competition score to one of a season’s high water marks is illuminating — particularly as compared across the field.
Lubov Ilyushechkina / Dylan Moscovitch (CAN) – 181.41 [combined total: 60.96 + 120.45] (2015 Nats score: 187.85)
Gretchen Donlan / Nate Bartholomay (USA) – 166.74 [combined total: 61.76 + 104.98] (2015 Nats score: 168.05)
Marissa Castelli / Mervin Tran (USA) – 163.35 [combined total: 62.84 + 100.51] (2015 Nats score: 169.14)
Alexandria Shaughnessy / Jimmy Morgan (USA) – 111.02 [combined score: 42.04 + 68.98] (2015 Nats score: 131.20)
New teams
Jessica Pfund / Joshua Santillan (USA) – 145.98 [combined score: 48.60 + 97.38]
Brianna de la Mora / Maxim Kurdukov (USA) – 122.14 [combined score: 39.08 + 83.06]
This year, the longstanding Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships have been revamped as separate but simultaneous events: the traditional championships and a new international, offered for both junior and senior competitors to obtain ISU points. Despite the division, scores followed a similar range, and panels saw overlap.
Andréanne Poulin / Marc-André Servant (CAN) – 131.29 [combined total: 48.43 + 82.86]
Danielle Thomas / Daniel Eaton (USA) – 129.96
Carolane Soucisse / Simon Tanguay (CAN) – 128.06
Karina Manta / Joseph Johnson (USA) – 126.2 [combined total: 51.45 + 74.75]
Charlotte Maxwell / Ryan Devereaux (USA) – 121.16
Alissandra Aronow / Collin Brubaker (USA) – 116.58
Alexandra Aldridge / Matthew Blackmer (USA) – 115.64 [combined total: 46.78 + 68.86]
Catherine Daigle-Roy / Dominic Barthe (CAN) – 114.28
Alexa Linden / Addison Voldeng (CAN) – 112.38
Kseniya Ponomaryova / Oleg Altukhov (USA) – 99.98 [combined total: 41.04 + 58.94]
Tory Patsis / Nathan Fast (USA) – 98.63 [combined total: 39.14 + 59.49]
Elicia Reynolds / Stephen Reynolds (USA) – 88.80
Roxette Howe / Jean-Luc Jackson (CAN) – 87.14
With international Challenger Series and Senior B assignments pending, it remains to be seen which of these teams — none currently assigned to a Grand Prix event — may pick up further opportunities to build on an international record. Among those competing in either event, only Poulin & Servant and Aronow & Brubaker have competed at a past senior international as a team (both 2014 Autumn Classic International), while former partners Aldridge and Eaton bring the most extensive experience, including appearances at the World Championships and senior Grand Prix. Soucisse & Tanguay and Fast (with Madeline Heritage) have logged junior international experience, as did Blackmer in pairs.
Star power was evident in the junior ranks at both competitions, particularly Lake Placid, with both international and championship events including U.S. Junior World competitors and national medalists in WISA training mates Rachel and Michael Parsons (LPIDI gold) and Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter (first overall in SD and FD, LPIDC) and Novi dancers Elliana Pogrebinsky and Alex Benoit (first in SD and FD groups, second overall scoring, LPIDC), whose teammates Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (LPIDI silver) also rank among leaders in the U.S. junior scene. Skate Detroit featured solid outings from Junior Grand Prix-bound pairs including Canada’s Justine Brasseur and Mathieu Ostiguy (third SP, second LP) and Hope McLean and Trennt Michaud (first SP, third LP) and USA’s Lindsay Weinstein and Jacob Simon (fifth SP, first LP) and Sarah Rose and Joseph Goodpaster, JGP alternates whose strong second in the SP may help ensure a subsequent assignment outright.
Lake Placid also played host to the U.S. ice dance qualifier for the 2016 Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, where two teams earned spots to compete at that event. And it was two more teams from Novi and WISA to come out on top: Chloe Lewis and Logan Bye, seventh at last season’s U.S. Nationals, were victorious, with Eliana Gropman and Ian Somerville, who as part of last season’s deeply competitive Eastern Sectionals field just missed the cut-off to make Nationals, taking silver.
On the heels of Lake Placid, Minto Summer Skate delivered the first real look at the new Canadian dance scene — with the juniors delivering some of the biggest intrigue.