{"id":19583,"date":"2019-01-18T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=19583"},"modified":"2020-02-16T12:05:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T17:05:36","slug":"preview-2019-u-s-national-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/preview-2019-u-s-national-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: 2019 U.S. National Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Detroit, Michigan hosts the 2019 U.S. National Championships.\u00a0 <\/span>The best teams at the juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior and senior levels will take the ice to fight for podium positions.\u00a0 <\/span>For the teams at the novice, junior and senior levels, more is at stake.\u00a0 <\/span>Novice teams\u00a0 <\/span>can earn opportunities to represent Team USA at international competitions, while three junior couples will be named to the World Junior Championships team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States has three berths at both the Four Continents Championships and the World Championships, and with the 2019 Four Continents Championships taking place in Anaheim, California, teams could have the opportunity to skate at home.\u00a0 <\/span>Placements at the U.S. Championships as well as additional criteria are used by the International Selection Committee when determining who will comprise Team USA\u2019s roster at each event.\u00a0 <\/span>In non-Olympic seasons, it has been customary for the same three teams to compete at both events. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 2019 National Championships marks the final time that all five levels will compete at one location\/event.\u00a0 <\/span>A new qualifying structure, approved at last May\u2019s USFS Governing Council, will go into effect starting next season and only the junior and senior levels will be contested at the 2020 U.S. National Championships in Greensboro, NC.\u00a0 <\/span>Team IDC will be publishing more information on the new qualifying structure at a later date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twelve teams make up the senior roster.\u00a0 <\/span>Team USA set a new record during the Grand Prix series with five different teams earning medals.\u00a0 <\/span>Three of the medalists from the 2018 podium will compete in Detroit and all three of those teams are now training with the same coaches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reigning U.S. Champions, Madison Hubbell & Zachary Donohue, won all four of the international events they entered, including the U.S. Classic and back-to-back Grand Prix events at Skate America and Skate Canada.\u00a0 <\/span>They capped 2018 with their first medal and win at December\u2019s ISU Grand Prix Final.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe take it competition by competition,\u201d Hubbell said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThere is a momentum knowing that our equation is working, that what we are doing here in training is working and continually proving what we are capable of, but it isn\u2019t a momentum because at the end of the day it\u2019s a different competition, a different panel and a different group of competitors every time.\u00a0 <\/span>So, we\u2019re not taking winning our last four competitions is making us unbeatable at Nationals\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always nice to look back and see your hard work bear fruit,\u201d Donohue added.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIt gives you a boost of confidence. Honestly it just motivates us for more. Once you\u2019ve had a taste of achieving your dream it\u2019s hard to shy away from that. It\u2019s definitely motivating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Heading into the U.S. Championships, the team has changed some of the elements around to make the program flow more with the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the 2017-18 season, Kailtin Hawayek & Jean-Luc Baker relocated to Montreal and are now coached by Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer.\u00a0 <\/span>Hawayek & Baker earned their first Grand Prix gold at NHK Trophy.\u00a0 <\/span>They also gained valuable experience after competing at their first Grand Prix Final, where they finished sixth.\u00a0 <\/span>Their free dance has changed <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we took from the GPF is how very important it is to focus on the levels and the technical side of the scores,\u201d Hawayek said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWe have been working on that, of course, especially in the Rhythm Dance.\u00a0 <\/span>One of the things we took away was the quality of the elements we do and how a single increase in a GOE for an element boosts he score a lot, so we have been working on that a lot. Some elements have been changed a bit to increase the quality and cleanliness of it. Those we didn\u2019t change we worked on increasing the quality of them as well. Plus the information we got back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Madison Chock & Evan Bates missed most of this season while Chock recovered from a foot injury that plagued her last season.\u00a0 <\/span>Like Hawayek & Baker, the team relocated to Montreal to train with Team Gadbois.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe move to Montreal has been good for us on a lot of levels,\u201d Bates said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThings can get stagnant after a while and for us we\u2019ve been training in Michigan \u2013 for me, my entire life and for Madison, 13 years. We needed a change to be invigorated for the next four-year cycle. Obviously, there\u2019s something going on in the camp in Montreal. You see the success they\u2019ve had especially at the Olympics. We knew if we could move there, that would be the place that would spark our passion again and give us the daily competition we were craving.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, they handily won Mentor Torun Cup, where they received scores that were comparable with other top teams in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>It [Torun Cup]\u00a0 <\/span>was our first competition in 10 months and it felt really great skating in competition again,\u201d Chock said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWe had a really good first outing.\u00a0 <\/span>We are really excited about our material this season. Our main goal is to get people excited about our skating again as much as we do We have such a new found passion and inspiration for skating again we haven\u2019t found in a long time, so we are ready to share that with everyone this season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lorraine McNamara & Quinn Carpenter, Rachel Parsons & Michael Parsons and Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko are former U.S. junior champions and each team earned their first Grand Prix series\u2019 medals this season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, Detroit, Michigan hosts the 2019 U.S. National Championships.\u00a0 The best teams at the juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior and senior levels will take the ice to fight for podium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[286,157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2018-2019-events","category-previews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=254%2C150&ssl=1",254,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/19natspreview0704.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This week, Detroit, Michigan hosts the 2019 U.S. National Championships.\u00a0 The best teams at the juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior and senior levels will take the ice to fight for podium […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-55R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19585,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19583\/revisions\/19585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}