{"id":41188,"date":"2025-11-15T16:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T21:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=41188"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:54:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:54:37","slug":"recap-2026-ice-dance-final-junior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/recap-2026-ice-dance-final-junior\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap: 2026 Ice Dance Final (Junior)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Report and Photos by Anne Calder<\/em><\/p>\n

The 2026 Pacific Coast Sectional Singles & U.S. Ice Dance Final was held at the America First Center November 02-05, 2025 in Henderson, Nevada. Twelve Juvenile, eleven Intermediate, twelve Novice, thirteen Junior and nine Senior teams competed.<\/p>\n

Ten Junior teams plus two with Final byes will join the five highest scoring Novice teams to compete at the Centene Community Center in the northwest St. Louis, MO suburb of Maryland Heights the week of the 2026 U.S. National Championships.<\/p>\n

The 2025-2026 Junior Rhythm Dance includes the music dance styles and feeling of the 1990\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Any music is possible as long as it was released, either originally or as a cover version in the 1990\u2019s and fulfills the Rhythm\/Theme as well as the required characteristics. Remixes and\/or remastered music, including cover versions is permitted. Music created via AI in the style of the 1990\u2019s is permitted.<\/p>\n

The teams have to execute two sequences of the\u00a0Rhumba followed by one sequence of the quickstep in their pattern dance element, with a consistent tempo (a minimum of 120 beats per minute, in 2\/2, 2\/4, or 4\/4 time).<\/p>\n

\"\"PLACEMENT & MEDALS<\/b><\/p>\n

The awarding of a pewter medal for fourth place began at U.S. figure skating championships in 1988. It is not given at international events.<\/p>\n

The Junior Rhythm Dance highest scoring teams: Effie Chen & Gordei Chitipakhovian (59.53), Jane Calhoun & Mark Zheltyshev (58.22),\u00a0 <\/span>Aneta Vaclavikova & William Lissauer (58.07) , Anaelle Kouevi & Yann Homawoo (54.47).<\/p>\n

The Junior Ice Dance Final podium: (gold) Jane Calhoun & Mark Zheltyshev (146.58), (silver) Effie Chen & Gordei Chitipakhovian (146.51), (bronze) Aneta Vaclavikova & William Lissauer (146.18), (pewter)\u00a0 <\/span>Anaelle\u00a0Kouevi & Yann Homawoo (135.07).<\/p>\n

QUICK QUOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jane Calhoun \/ Mark Zheltyshev<\/b><\/p>\n

JC: We\u2019ve been skating together for 9-10 months.<\/p>\n

MZ: This is just our second competition. The ice is really good.<\/p>\n

Coach Giulietti-Schmitt: Mark came to Colorado Springs from Perm, RUS. We had a two day tryout, then in July competed at LPIDI. It happened fast. It\u2019s been great from the very beginning. They match very well together. They get along. Everything is going really well.<\/p>\n

Ellie Chen \/ Gordei Chitipakhovian<\/b><\/p>\n

EC: I\u2019m so happy to be here. It\u2019s amazing. We\u2019re so grateful for this opportunity.<\/p>\n

GC: I\u2019m especially grateful to be here. The competition is good. I was in Colorado Springs for just one week.<\/p>\n

EC: We got him. He\u2019s a keeper!<\/p>\n

\"\"Aneta Vaclavikova \/ William Lissauer<\/b><\/p>\n

Today is William\u2019s 19th birthday<\/p>\n

WL: Our Rhythm Dance was definitely good. A season\u2019s best. You can\u2019t complain about that. There\u2019s always stuff to improve. The FD felt pretty good except for a bobble in the twizzle. We\u2019re concentrating on skating together, trying to add power to the connection.<\/p>\n

Anaelle Kouevi \/ Yann Homawoo<\/b><\/p>\n

AK: Our skate could have been better, but over all it was good.<\/p>\n

YH: There\u2019s always room to improve, but it\u2019s not bad for this competition.<\/p>\n

AK: Our first JGP was to Ankara, TUR. It was really fun and enjoyable. I really liked it a lot.<\/p>\n

YH: Seeing skaters from different nations and their customs was really great.<\/p>\n

\"\"Annelise Stapert \/ Maxim Korotcov<\/b><\/p>\n

AK: The ice was a little weird today. The program felt good, other than my bobble on the twizzle.<\/p>\n

MK: Today\u2019s skate was better. We recovered from yesterday\u2019s mistake [in the RD Rhumba Steps].<\/p>\n

AK: Our first JGP in Ankara, TUR was awesome and an amazing experience meeting so many new people.<\/p>\n

Clara Fugate \/ Warren Fugate<\/b><\/p>\n

CF:. I love Juniors. This is our first year. It feels very free.<\/p>\n

WF: It gives us more opportunities – to go places like the JGP. We\u2019ve been very fortunate to experience all these things. To be able to share it with my sister is awesome. Our hard work is paying off.<\/p>\n

CF: We\u2019re living out our dream together.<\/p>\n

Marian Carhart \/ Denis Bledsoe<\/b><\/p>\n

MC: I thought the skate went pretty well especially since we were off ice for a month and a half with my injury. I fractured my femur. I\u2019m very proud what we did today.<\/p>\n

DB: We now know what we have to work on for the next competition at Nationals. We\u2019ll come back better.<\/p>\n

Michelle Deyche \/ Ryan Hu<\/b><\/p>\n

The team commented on their goal after a fall in the Rhythm Dance.<\/p>\n

MD: Our plan today was to show what we\u2019ve trained. We did do a lot this past month to prepare for the event. RH: Basically we skated as far as we could. I had to take a moment to stop. When we came back we skated where we left off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grace Fischer \/ Luke Fischer<\/strong><\/p>\n

GF: Moving to the Novi Ice Arena in Novi, MI\u00a0 <\/span>has been very challenging. It has helped us be better skaters. We\u2019re really trying to keep growing as a team.<\/p>\n

LF: Our program wasn\u2019t the best. I got injured two weeks ago, so we had to take time off.<\/p>\n

GF: We went to Gdansk, Poland for a JGP. It was my favorite competition ever.<\/p>\n

LF: It was so cool skating internationally – meeting all the people.<\/p>\n

Sophia Feige \/ Wiles Middlekauff<\/b><\/p>\n

SF: [The skate] started off okay with the one-foot. It\u2019s been doing better in practice.<\/p>\n

WM: After the twizzles and dance spin, we pulled ourselves together and got better as it went along.<\/p>\n

Annie Huang \/ Simon Minz<\/strong><\/p>\n

AH: The skate wasn\u2019t our best. We made a mistake on the twizzles.<\/p>\n

SM: This is just our second season together.<\/p>\n

Nicole Kirsanov \/ Kejin Peng<\/b><\/p>\n

NK: We\u2019re very happy with our score for the amount of time we\u2019ve been skating together, which is just five months.\u00a0 <\/span>We partnered when Coach Gates moved from North Carolina to Delaware. He brought Kejin along.<\/p>\n

KP: We had a tryout and everything was good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report and Photos by Anne Calder The 2026 Pacific Coast Sectional Singles & U.S. Ice Dance Final was held at the America First Center November 02-05, 2025 in Henderson, Nevada. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41189,"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":[548,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-2026-event-recaps","category-featured"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=1080%2C639&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=1080%2C639&ssl=1",1080,639,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=254%2C150&ssl=1",254,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=300%2C178&ssl=1",300,178,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=1024%2C606&ssl=1",1024,606,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=1080%2C639&ssl=1",1080,639,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=1080%2C639&ssl=1",1080,639,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.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\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?resize=1080%2C639&ssl=1",1080,639,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.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\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.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\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?fit=1080%2C639&ssl=1",1080,639,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Recap-2026IDF-2966.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":"Report and Photos by Anne Calder The 2026 Pacific Coast Sectional Singles & U.S. Ice Dance Final was held at the America First Center November 02-05, 2025 in Henderson, Nevada. […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-aIk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41188","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=41188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41896,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41188\/revisions\/41896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}