|
North American Challange Skate Chicago
The North American Challenge Skate Chicago on August 23-25 wrapped up the
2001 NACS Series. Hosting the event at the Edge Ice Arena in Bensenville,
Illinois, was the DuPage Figure Skating Club. This marks the completion of
five years worth of NACS skating, sanctioned by the United States Figure
Skating Association and Skate Canada. This competition included Novice
Ladies, Novice Men, Novice Dance, and Junior Ladies. With eleven skaters
competing in Novice Ladies, and ten more in the Junior Ladies division, this
event brought out the best in the skaters, and was also a preview of what is
to come this fall in the qualifying events for the U.S. and Canadian national
championships.
Novice Ladies Free Skates
The first up to skate was Michelle Cantu of Mexico. She was in ninth place
after the short program. Cantu skated to a selection from "Mack and Mabelā"
for the free skate and had a fair amount of expression. She completed a
cheated triple loop-step-double toe loop, and a few seconds later fell on a
double axel. Soon after, Cantu successfully completed some more double jumps,
but made a sloppy mistake on her footwork. Her final spin was a bit slow, but
she had a nice camel spin position, and was a very cute skater overall.
Her marks ranged from 3.4-3.5 for technical, and 3.5-3.7 for presentation,
and she ended up in eighth position, one place higher than her short program
finish.
In tenth after the short program, and next to skate was Paulina Leal
representing Mexico. With music from "Four Seasons," Leal stepped out of her
opening combination, and jump-wise, things did not look up from there on out.
She failed to complete all but one double flip-double toe combination, but
her nice camel variations and spinning in both directions was very
impressive, as was her cannonball sit spin. Her marks for technical
difficulty were from 2.6-3.3 and for presentation 2.5-3.4, and she remained
in tenth position in the final outcome.
Next, representing the Skokie Valley SC from Glenview, IL, was Kristen Mita
skating to Indian-sounding music. Mita had previously placed fifth at
the 2001 Midwestern Sectionals and 10th at 2001 U.S. Nationals, and for good
reason! She has beautiful extension, good posture, and awesome
spinning. She landed her opening combination of double axel-double toe loop
and the rest of her jumps, with the exception of her final double axel, which she fell on. Her spiral had noticeable extension and her circular footwork was very pretty to watch. For technical merit, Mita received scores from 3.6-3.9, and here presentation scores ranged from 3.6-4.1, and remained in seventh place after the long program.
Chantielle McFarlane of Sarnia, ON, Canada, skated next. McFarlane placed
fifteenth at Canada's Novice Western Challenge last season, and was eighth
coming into the free skate. Skating to 'Malaguena," she had great speed
starting out the program, and landed her first element, the double
lutz-double toe. She followed up with a clean, delayed double axel.
Unfortunately, she fell on her next jump, the triple salchow. She also had a
noticeable wobble on her triple toe. McFarlane is a very lyrical skater, with
a good layback spin, and nice posture, but her jumping mistakes could not be
overlooked. Both sets of marks were between 3.2-3.6.
Mexico's final skater, and in last place (eleventh) coming into the free
skate, was Loretta Hamui. Skating to "Little Princess," Hamui started off
her program with a wonderful scratch spin from an entry with almost no speed.
She landed no jumps cleanly in the first half of her program; instead, she
underrotated her first double axel, and she spun out of her double toe. She
had very slow diagonal footwork, but a good camel position. Hamui ended with
a really fast scratch spin, but coming out of it, she might have been a
little dizzy and she slipped up. The first thing that I thought after her
program ended was that she resembled a twelve-year-old Tara Lipinski skating
to "Samson and Delilah" at the 1994 Olympic Festival, just without the
jumps. Hamui received marks between 2.6-3.2 for technique, and 2.9- 3.4 for
presentation. She did not improve on her placement, and remained in eleventh
place.
Megan Duhamel of Lively, ON, Canada, was up next with music from
"Barcelona." Duhamel was second going into the long program, and judging
from the warm up, had a huge shot at grabbing the gold. She came out with a
bang and cleanly landed her triple toe-double loop-double toe loop
combination. This was followed up with a stumble on a double flip, but she
quickly gained some momentum by landing a triple salchow, and also saved a
triple loop. She had a good layback, and landed two more jumps in
combination. She fell on a double axel, and her ending spin lacked some
speed. For the technical merit, her marks ranged from 4.2-3.5, and for
presentation, her marks ranged from 3.9- 4.3. She remained in second place in
the final results.
Representing the Hamilton Figure Skating Club in Hamilton, ON, Canada, was
fifteen-year-old Krysta Pouliot. Pouliot is the 2001 Novice Canadian
Champion, and was fourth coming into the long program. Her long program was a
combined medley of "Death of Mir," "Harry and Grace Make Peace," and
"Launch." Starting out, she had a great spiral, and a triple salchow.
Pouliot also landed a triple flip, but stepped out of a double axel. Her nice
spin positions and only spreadeagle of the competition were a refreshing
change in choreography. She then fell on the next jump, but followed it up
with a couple more double jumps in combination. She ended with another double
axel, this time clean, and a very fast final spin. Her scores ranged from
3.9-4.4 and 3.9-4.6, which ranked her third in the free skate and won her the
bronze medal.
Canada's Tamara Palaniuk, the 2001 Manitoba Sectionals winner, from Brandon,
Manitoba, took the ice next. Her dress was very adorable; it looked just like
Tara Lipinski's "Walking On Sunshine" dress, with a matching yellow pony
holder. Classical music really did her justice; she is a very lyrical and
beautiful to watch. She landed a nice double lutz-double toe
combination, but followed it up with a fall on her double axel. Palaniuk
completed a circular footwork that matched the music quite well.
Unfortunately, she stepped out of her next jump and two footed her final
double axel. She did, however, perform a very pleasant Russian split-stag
jump sequence, with a layback spin ending the program. Her technical marks
ranged from 3.6-4.0, and her presentation marks were from 3.7-4.4. Overall,
she has a great level of charisma on the ice, and the judges placed her sixth
in the final results.
Lisa Dannemiller, the leader after the short program, took the ice next. She represents the Ann Arbor FSC in Ann Arbor, MI. She was the 2000 U.S.
Intermediate Champion and placed 14th at 2001 Novice Nationals. The familiar
sounds of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from the musical "Evita" fitted her
flow on the ice. She began with a perfectly executed spread eagle into a
double axel, and followed it up with a gorgeous layback spin. She then fell
on her first triple attempt, the triple toe. Dannemiller had a nice Ina Bauer
and nice expression, but she fell on another attempted triple jump. Her
diagonal footwork looked tentative, but coming out of it she landed a clean
triple toe. She finished up with the best spirals of the competition and
ended with a clean double axel-double toe loop. She was by far the crowd's
favorite, and the crowd felt she was undermarked for her presentation scores,
which ranged from 4.0-4.7. Her technical marks ranged from 3.8-4.4. With
those scores, Dannemiller took home the gold medal.
In third place after the short, and next to skate, was the USA's Lea
Nightwalker. Fourteen-year-old Nightwalker from the ISC of Fort Collins in
For Collins, CO, was fifth at the 2001 Novice Nationals. She skated to vocal musical selections from "The Red Violin," "Meditations," and "Four
Seasons." She started off with a very lovely Ina Bauer, followed by a
clean double lutz-double loop combination. Her next combination was cleanly
landed as well, and she had wonderful speed and looked very elegant on the
ice. Sadly, she fell on back-to-back double axels, but landed her next three
double jumps. Her circular footwork was by far the best of the night, with
quick steps and very appropriate turns with the music. Nightwalker finished
with a very pleasant layback, but her lack of clean triple jumps as well as
her falls held her back from receiving some good scores for her speed and
footwork. Nightwalker's marks for technical merit ranged from 3.8-4.2, and
for presentation 4.2-4.4, dropping her one spot from the short to fourth
place overall.
The last Novice lady to step on the ice was Caitlin Mallory from Berkeley,
CA, who was fifth after the short. Mallory represents the Santa Rosa Figure
Skating Club, was 4th at 2001 Intermediate Nationals, and came off a win
at the 2001 Crystalline Competition. Skating to "Rondo Capriccioso," she
started out with a double axel-double toe loop combination. With no triples,
Mallory completed five more double jumps, one of which was a 'Tano Lutz.' She
had a very nice falling leaf in the beginning of her program, and a good
position on her camel spin. Mallory really excels at spinning; her Biellmann
was the best of the competition, and her layback was wonderful as well.
Another highlight of her program was her circular footwork. It was fast and
had a great amount of spring to it. The lack of difficulty in the jumps,
though, lowered her technical mark, which ranged from 3.6-4.1, while her
presentation was slightly higher with 3.6 (undermarked)-4.3, and she remained
in fifth place.
The author would like to thank Josef of "The Skate Blade" for his assistance with this review.
|
