NOVICE COMPULSORY DANCE
Report by Daphne Backman

Chloe Wolf & Rhys Ainsworth and Megan Evans & Nathan Truesdell, the only returning teams from the 2007 novice event, set the tone for the novice compulsory dance event on Sunday in Saint Paul.

[THE TOP FOUR AT-A-GLANCE]

Eastern Sectional Champions Wolf & Ainsworth finished first in the Tango and third in the Kilian and were pleased with their outing today.

“I thought our tango went really well today. It felt good," Wolf said. “The Kilian was a little shaky, but we got through it.”

A mistake in the Tango slotted Megan Evans & Nathan Truesdell into third after the first dance. Taking the ice in the second group for the second dance, the team set a score of 25.79 that stood up through the rest of the Kilian portion of the novice compulsory dance competition. Evans and Truesdell are just .08 behind the leaders.

“I think we could have done better, especially in the Tango, but I’m pleased with how we did in the Kilian and were able to pull up a place,” Evans said.

Evans is still relatively new to ice dance as this is only her second season in this discipline.

“This year it’s a lot more comfortable,” Evans said. “Last year, I was just learning the ropes and about the sport in itself. This year we feel more comfortable in the partnership and both contribute more.”

Truesdell’s goal heading into this event is a medal.

“I really wanted to medal, because I’m trying to become the second African American to medal at the U.S. Championships in ice dancing," Truesdell said. “The only other time that it happened was 15 years ago and they got the bronze, so I’m hoping to at least match that.”

In third place after both dances sit Katie Wyble & Justin Morrow. After finishing fourth in the Tango, the duo skated a solid Kilian to finish second in that dance and pull up one spot. They were just .12 behind Evans & Truesdell in the Kilian.

Though he has competed at U.S. Junior Nationals, this is Morrow's first trip to the U.S. Championships. Wyble, who missed last year’s Championships when she and her partner split after the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships, is happy to be back.

“It actually feels really good,” Wyble said. “To be skating in the main arena [creates] anxiety. It’s so much fun being here.”

Up until this year, the novices normally had one or both events in a smaller, secondary arena. This is the first year that all of the events for all levels are held in one location.

Wyble and Morrow teamed up in June 2007 and entered only the compulsory dance events at the LPIDC, winning the gold medal in the final round championship. The team, who finished second at Eastern Sectionals, did so with a relatively new free dance. The program has seen many changes since its debut, in the hope of receiving higher levels.

“We’ve changed our last lift, a little bit of the first lift, and we also changed our spin and the structure a little bit,” Wyble said. “Basically, everything is still in the same spot, just alterations.”

Rounding out the top four are Anastasia Olson & Jordan Cowan. Both Olson and Cowan competed at the 2007 Championships with different partners--Olson with Patrick Mays and Cowan with Michaela Cook. This new partnership was formed in April 2007 and has given them instant success. They were second in the Tango and fifth in the Kilian. It was the latter that was the surprise for them.

“It was a pleasant surprise because Kilian is our better dance, we feel,” Olson said.

Overall, they were pleased with their skating.

“They felt pretty good," Olson said. “I don’t think we could have done better. We felt really good through all of them.”

Though a few of the other dancers commented on the ice condition once other teams had skated the Kilian, Olson & Cowan skated first, so were unaffected by this. Cowan had his own opinion on this subject.

“It shouldn’t matter," Cowan said. "Who knows what rinks we’re going to be skating on in the future. It’s all about being prepared, and we were prepared.”

A quartet of up-from-intermediate teams making their “Big Nationals” debut landed in spots five through eight. Una Donegan & Andrew Korda finished fifth in the Tango and fourth in the Kilian scoring a combined 44.60. Lauren Ely & Travis Mager, who placed seventh in both dances, wound up in sixth overall with a 43.43 combined score. Kate McDermott & Colin McManus are in seventh with 43.31 followed by Benjamin Nykiel & Liza Branella in eighth with 42.81.

Elyse Matsumoto & Patrick Mays finished ninth in the Tango and eighth in the Kilian and are in ninth with 41.39.

Grace Lee Sells & Robert Cuthbertson of Texas are in 10th after finishing tenth in both dances, while Hayley Soohoo and Brett Ryan of California are in 11th. Both teams are skating at their first U.S. Championships.