LIVIN’ A DREAM
DENNEY AND COUGHLIN WASTE NO TIME IN BECOMING CHAMPS by TERRY TERZIAN
W
hen Caydee Denney and John Coughlin executed their “head- banger” move at the end of their
virtually flawless free skate, the San Jose crowd erupted in frenzied delight. Te performance capped a magical weekend that earned them a season-best 189.70 points and the U.S. title. “Our goal this year was to go out and win nationals, and I feel so happy that we have achieved that,” Denney said. “We skated the best that we could’ve. We want to make the podium at Worlds or at least finish in the top four.”
“We had a great time out there,” Cough- lin added. “Tere was a lot of energy in the audience. We had a vision of what we wanted to do while we were here. Once I got off the ice, it was how I wished it would be; it was how I was dreaming it would be.” Denney and Coughlin found themselves
in third place after a fall on a normally steady throw triple flip in the short program. All of the other required elements were well done, in particular their high-soaring triple twist, and received positive grades of execution.
Denney, 18, and Cough- lin, 26, have only been skat- ing together since May 2011, both having won U.S. pairs titles with pre- vious partners (Denney in 2010 with Jeremy Barrett and Coughlin in 2011 with Caitlin Yankowskas). With their win in San
Jose, Denney and Coughlin earned the distinction of be- ing the first pairs titlists in U.S. skating history to have each captured a gold medal with a previous partner. Tere have been a few se- lect individuals who have earned national crowns with more than one part- ner (notably Kyoko Ina,
Todd Sand, Melissa Militano, and Maribel Vin- son), but no pair in which both in- dividuals skated to gold with two different partners. Denney and
PHOTO BY MATTHEW STOCKMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Coughlin train in Colorado Springs, Colo., under Dalilah Sappenfield and Larry Ibarra. Denney moved to Colorado Springs after Bar- rett’s retirement.
“I think that their work ethic, their chemis-
try, their relationship, how easy it is to work with them, have made all the difference in why they’ve clicked so quickly,” Sappenfield said. “Tey com- municate so well and are really in tune with each other’s needs. Tere’s no fighting; each has the same goal. So it’s made a big difference in how quickly they’ve been able to jell.” Coughlin agreed. “We did feel comfortable right off the
bat,” he said. “Obviously, there’s no replace- ment for time. Tat’s why Dalilah had us get out so many times. We did as many shows at the beginning of the season as we could, just because we wanted to build that rapport and build that mileage.”
Te pair turned to famed choreogra-
pher Marina Zoueva for assistance with their “Nessun Dorma” free skate. Highlights from that spectacular program included a program- opening triple twist followed by a throw triple loop and side-by-side triple toe loops. A pair of level four spins, a throw triple flip and a mag- nificent lift which they exited with Coughlin swinging Denney head-first toward the ice, earned them the top element score and best component mark of the competition. “We had a blast,” Coughlin said immedi- ately after stepping off the ice. “Caydee landed that flip. We wanted it so bad after the short and I smiled really big and she looked at me and said ‘stay focused.’ ‘Yes, ma’am.’” “I really made it a goal for myself, to just
go out there and do the best that I could no matter what happens. I’m glad I achieved that goal,” Denney said. Trivia aficionados will delight in another nugget arising out of the San Jose competition. Earlier in the week, Caydee’s 16-year-old sister, Haven, skated to the junior pairs gold medal with partner Brandon Frazier. Tis marks one of the first times in U.S. skating history in which two sisters have earned gold medals at the same U.S. Championships. “I was sitting up in the stands and it was
so exciting watching my sister,” Caydee said. “It’s different, you know, when you’re watch- ing. Tis is my little sister! I care so much about her. It was very motivating. Tat was awesome.” Somewhat unexpectedly, the leaders after the short program were Mary Beth Marley, 16,
and 25-year-old Rockne Brubaker. Save for a small gaffe in the last 10 seconds — Brubaker put his hand down on the death spiral — their “Singin’ in the Rain” program was maturely presented and earned the couple a standing ovation. Teir score of 65.80 put them more than four points ahead of their nearest com- petitors heading into the free skate. It is also the second-highest pairs short program score at a U.S. Championships under the current International Judging System (IJS), rivaled only by Brubaker’s achievement with former partner Keauna McLaughlin in 2008. “We had a lot of fun with the perfor- mance and the skate tonight,” Brubaker said. “Going in here, we felt good all week. At home we’ve trained really hard. We came into nationals feeling prepared and trained. It was nice going into the short program knowing we could let loose and take one thing at a time and really perform it.” “We improved a lot from Skate America,”
Marley added. “We got a lot of higher GOEs and lots of more positive levels. I’m happy about getting a level two on the twist. Te catch has been more difficult for me to learn, but I’m happy it worked out today. I felt we put all the pieces together from our training and shined today.”
A two-time U.S. senior pairs champion
(2008-’09) and World Junior titlist (2007) with McLaughlin, Brubaker contemplated quitting the sport after the bitter disappoint- ment of failing to make the 2010 Olympic Team. “After the last trials and with what hap- pened, it was a tough experience,” Brubaker said. “Te thought of starting over wasn’t fun. But I’m glad I stayed in it. Tis is a testament that when you really want something and you’ve worked hard enough for it, good things will come your way. I think Mary Beth and I are on the right track. It’s going to take some years; we’ve got a lot of growing to do. I haven’t felt that good on the ice in probably a couple years. When you can feel like that after a per- formance, it’s in that moment you realize why you came back and why you stuck it out.” Marley was a complete newcomer to pairs skating when she and Brubaker paired up in the summer of 2010. “Rockne and Mary Beth have come a long way in the last 16 months since she started skat- ing pairs and they started skating together,” said Jenni Meno, who with husband Todd Sand
SKATING 21
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