Notes on 2011 Sectionals

Midwesterns - Ann Arbor, Michigan

Alissa Czisny, the 2009 ladies national championship, finished 10th at last year's championship. Due to this finish she had to qualify for nationals despite winning a Grand Prix event two weeks earlier. She won Midwesterns by over 30 points. According to her scores, the short program was good, but the long program had some issues including two falls. The other skaters rounding out the top four and earning a trip to Nationals hail from Colorado - Morgan Bell, Katy Jo West and Tatyana Khazova.

The senior mens event was much more competitive between a veteran of senior nationals (Pennington), junior grand prix competitors (Brown and Johnson) and a skater moving into the senior ranks after success as a junior competitor (Hochstein). Jason Brown edged out Grant Hochstein. Parker Pennington finished 3rd and Alexander Johnson rounds out the top four that advanced to nationals.

Only three couples competed in the senior pairs event. Molly Aaron and Daniyel Cohen won the event. The new team of Becky Bereswill and Trevor Young finished 2nd and advanced to Nationals.

There were also only three couples competing in the dance event. Shannon Wingle and Timothy McKernan won by nearly 20 points.

Easterns - Aston, Pennsylvania

Samantha Cesario won senior ladies. Melissa Bulanhagui, Kelsey Traunero and Joelle Forte also  advanced. Forte is an older skater, mid-twenties so it's always fun to see a slightly older skater without major sponsors advance.


There were four couples in both the dance and pairs events, but I didn't recognize any of the competitors. It appears it will be a first nationals for those skaters and possible Grand Prix events in the future.

Pacific Coasts - Culver City, CA

Vanessa Lam conquered the senior ladies event by 18 points. She sure is having a great year also having won her only Junior Grand Prix event. Danielle Kahle finished 2nd. She had competed at nationals a few years ago and thought she moved on as she got older, so it's nice to see her name near the top of the sectionals competitors. There was another oldie but goodie at this event, Laura Lipetski finished 11th. She competed at senior nationals back in the late 90s. So she actually competed against Michelle Kwan, Nicole Bobek, Tara Lipinski and Tonia Kwiatkowski. How cool is that? That's gonna inspire me in tomorrow practice working on those junior moves thinking I need to switch to the adult moves track.

Rockne Brubaker and his new partner Mary Beth Marley were the only senior pair there. They only skated their short and scored something like 52 pts for it. Mary Beth also competed in Jr. ladies and qualified for Nationals by finishing 4th.

Jonathan Cassar won the senior mens event and will be gracing us with his awe-inspiring spread eagles at nationals.

Sectionals - Good Luck!

Good luck to all of the competitors participating at either the Eastern, Midwestern or Pacific sectionals this weekend. If you're in Michigan, head to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube to see Alissa Czisny and Grant Hochstein skate to qualify for Nationals. Alissa Czisny just won a Grand Prix event two weeks ago but has to qualify at Midwestern Sectionals!

Senior Men's Short in Spokane

Stayed up late Friday to watch Icenetwork's broadcast of the senior men's short at the U.S. National Champs in Spokane. After a little aggravation that the event didn't actually start at 9:45 as listed, I was treated to some great skates by Johnny Weir and Jeremy Abbot. (The Opening Ceremony started at 9:45 with "Thank You Spokane!" speeches from half of US Figure Skating, and then some kids skated as the flag, then they cut the ice again. All while I could have finished watching an episode of The Tudors with my husband. Argh!)

Johnny Weir skated second and gave a first rate performance. I haven't seen him skate with such command since his "Swan" short in the last Olympic season. Jeremy Abbott ended the first group of five with his "Day in the Life" short. It's an Abbott classic and garnished him an impressive score. I was eager to see Ryan Bradley do well, and he landed a soaring quad toe-triple toe combo but then doubled his Axel and Lutz. I'd never seen Keegan Messing or Johnathan Cassar before and wow, sorry I've missed them before. (OMG, the spread eagle Cassar does could be shown to cancer patients. It would raise endorphin levels and assist with defeating cancer. It's that wicked-good.)

My late night skating spectatoring ended a bit after Grant Hochstein. I had the pleasure of watching Grant skate in person at the 2007 Eastern Great Lakes Regionals in the novice division. Glad to see he's still going at it and impressing the judges at the senior championship. After Grant, Icenetwork really started cutting in and out. As it approached 1:00 a.m. Eastern, I finally logged out and hit the sack. I missed Evan Lysacek and Adam Rippon. I did see a bit of Evan's warm up in between blackouts. He was minus the feather gloves, I guess he ditched the "Evan Featherhands" look for Nats. Despite the new look, he apparently stepped out of his triple Axel.

It's Jeremy in first, Evan in second, Johnny in third.

I'm boring - here's what the journalists and other bloggers had to say about the event:
Jeremy Abbott Looks Ahead With Confidence - Detroit Free Press

Abbott Prevails at US Skating Championship - New York Times

Abbott, Lysacek, Weir Dominate - Los Angeles Times

Abbott's 'Day in the Life' Finds Him In First - USA Today

Lysacek's Brilliant Performance Doesn't Impress US Judges - USA Today

Aaron's Blog: Axels, Loops, and Spins

Laura's Blog: Required Elements