2006 Eastern Sectional Championships – Junior Report

by Lindsay Higgins

Junior Compulsory Dance #1- Austrian Waltz
The good news is, I made decent time getting to Pennsylvania on Thursday and managed to miss only one team. The bad news is that the team I missed was Summersett and Pennington, who won the dance with a score of 12.79. This was a much closer competition than the novice event- in the first dance, the top four teams were within .78 of each other, and the margin in the second dance was just 1.25.

Kaitlyn Weaver (Charter Oak SC) and Charles Clavey (Texas Gulf Coast FSC) had an unfortunate fall in the last half of their second pattern, resulting from hitting the boards. Up to that point- and actually after that point as well- the dance was very nice. They have beautiful knee action and were one of the only teams without any audible toe-pick scratching or noticeable slowing at any point. After the fall, they got right back into the dance and finished strongly and on time. I’m sure there were skaters and parents at the event wondering how a team could fall in a compulsory dance and still place second, and under the old judging system I’m not sure it would have happened- having been at quite a few dance events where similar things have occurred, I think the ordinals would have been all over the place. Under the new system, I’ve felt more confident that good overall skating gets rewarded, and this event did nothing to dissuade me. Score for Weaver and Clavey: 12.23

Elizabeth Miosi and Dmitri Ponomarev (clubs?) seemingly came out of nowhere to place not just third, but a strong third. In fact, “strong” is the word that comes to mind most about their skating. Their speed and power are impressive, and they were able to use those qualities in a fast waltz like the Austrian. Score: 12.16

In fourth place were Blake Rosenthal and Calvin Taylor (University of Delaware FSC). They have some nice waltz qualities, and given that they’re often the smallest team in the field, they have better extension than one might expect. Definitely belong in the top four. Score: 12.01

In fifth through eighth place were Erika Hoffman (Warwick Figure Skaters) and Alexander Boeglin (Pawtucket and Providence FSC), Rachel Siegel (University of Delaware FSC) and Jonathan Ross (Coyotes SC of Arizona), Ashton Blust (Philadelphia SC&HS) and Stephen Chasman (Broadmoor FCS); and Amanda Lloyd (Broadmoor FSC) and Dmitro Overchuk (Richmond FSC).

Second Dance- Paso Doble
The only change in the standings between both compulsories was a flip-flop between sixth and seventh place, meaning Summersett and Pennington won the Paso. They had added an interesting move for expression, with Jane bending her back almost parallel to the ice just before the breakout step. Overall it was a strong dance for them, resulting in a score of 15.27 and a combined compulsory score of 28.06.

Weaver and Clavey finished second with a big pattern and nice sharp knee action. Their long legs allow them to gain power without sacrificing extension at all, a big plus in a dance like the Paso where the quick steps don’t allow for sustained pushes or extensions. Their Paso score of 15.00 brought their total to 27.23.

Miosi and Ponomarev again placed third in a dance that uses their main strength- power. While their pattern looked to be longer than some teams’, it didn’t appear significantly shallower. The first breakout step didn’t look to be quite as far to the wall as some teams’ but the subsequent ones did. It’s possible that the rink size was giving them issues; it looked from the bleachers to be long but narrow, with tight corners, and I did hear at least two teams (one of whom trains on an Olympic-size rink at home) say that the corners were throwing them off a bit. Aside from those details, it was a good dance and a solid third-place performance, gaining them 14.39 points for a combined score of 26.55.

Rosenthal and Taylor, skating first in the Paso, placed fourth with a performance similar in quality to their Austrian. Their placements in dance are even more impressive in light of the fact that Blake was competing here in Novice Ladies as well; in the space of three days she competed two compulsories, an OD, a free dance, a short program, and a long program, and had practices and warm-ups for all of them.

Junior OD
Despite a quick down-and-up fall, Summersett and Pennington retained their lead through the OD. They had some really nice lifts and good speed through their footwork. They also make good use of their hands and arms in their choreography, something that’s surprisingly lacking in some teams’ programs. Their score of 45.26 brought them to 73.32 combined.

Weaver and Clavey also had a good skate in the OD. They maintained excellent unison through the side-by-side footwork, and their dance spins are better than some of the senior teams’ (I lost count at 7 rotations). Even in practice, every one was centered, something many teams struggle with. OD score: 43.89, for 71.12 overall.

Miosi and Ponomarev had another strong performance in the OD. They’re very secure on the lifts, and their spread eagle lift featured an upside-down position. The rest of the program utilized the same good speed and power they showed in the compulsories. Their OD score was 41.75, giving them a combined score of 68.30.

Rosenthal and Taylor also have some good lifts, including their rotational lift, which is done one-handed. They opened with the footwork and a set of side-by-side twizzles that covered about one-third of the rink length. The score for their OD was 39.18, bringing them to 65.21.

Siegel and Ross placed fifth in the OD with a score of 31.89, bringing them to fifth overall (I first saw them skate in May or June, and they’ve really made incredible progress since then); Blust and Chasman were sixth with 31.15, Lloyd and Overchuk seventh with 30.64, and Hoffman and Boeglin eighth with 28.42. The standings after the OD were:

5. Siegel and Ross, 52.27
6. Blust and Chasman, 52.11
7. Hoffman and Boeglin, 51.59
8. Lloyd and Overchuk, 50.09