2012 PRUDENTIAL U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS NOTEBOOK
ra fought for the first time down the road in Pueblo, Colo. “Te most nervous I’ve ever been in my life was watching my son fight in the MMA (mixed martial arts) event,” Sappenfield said. “It only lasted 35 seconds but it was awful for me, awful. Obviously I get a little bit nervous watching my skaters skate but I train them so I kind of know what to expect. And it’s a little different; you don’t have someone who wants to kill you. I thought I was going to pass out.” Ibarra defeated his opponent with a submission arm bar to pick up
the win. He loves the rush of competing although he doesn’t necessarily have a strong desire to fight someone.
“I plan on getting back to training and fighting again (once the skating season winds down),” Ibarra said. For Sappenfield, it won’t be any easier a second time. “I don’t want to be there but I have to be there,” she said. - Troy Schwindt
STARTING YOUNG Many U.S. ice dancers come to the discipline after competing in
freestyle, but Maryland’s Wheaton Ice Skating Academy (WISA) be- lieves in introducing skaters to ice dance when they’re kindergarteners. Novice silver medalists Whitney Miller and Kyle MacMillan, at
13 and 14, respectively, are about three years younger than the gold medalists. Another WISA team, siblings Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons, at ages 14 and 16, won the U.S. novice title last season and placed fourth at the 2012 Youth Olympics. “If couples start young, they have time to grow up and cook a little bit so when they are in seniors, they will be prepared,” Dmytri Ilin, co- director of WISA and a former Ukrainian ice dance competitor, said. “All of our kids start young and they try little by little.” WISA brought five teams, including one novice, three junior and
one senior, to San Jose. In addition, WISA teams won juvenile gold and silver, and intermediate gold, at the 2012 U.S. Junior Figure Skating Championships. “Every practice is a mini competition where they can improve and
compete,” Alexei Kiliakov, the WISA director and a Soviet-era ice dance competitor, said. “If skaters are 13, they have six years to be in juniors to get experi- ence to successfully compete at senior level. Here we have girl at junior level who is just 12, I think they are very competitive, they can try to get a medal maybe.” Tey did. Lorraine McNamara and her partner, Quinn Carpenter,
took bronze. — Lynn Rutherford MENO AND SAND KNOW THE WAY TO SAN JOSE “We have a lot of great memories of competing here in 1996,” said
Jenni Meno, who with husband Todd Sand captured their third of three U.S. pairs titles in San Jose. “Te audience was just amazing, plus we had our families here with us.” “It’s a great venue, it’s very comfortable to perform here,” Sand
added. “We performed in Champions on Ice several times in San Jose, and it was always a very warm and appreciative crowd.” Meno and Sand coached second-year team Mary Beth Marley and
Rockne Brubaker to the silver medal and a World Team berth in San Jose.
“It’s nice to be back and see the kids we are working with expe- rience the things we were able to experience as skaters,” Meno said. “Coming into these nationals, we hoped our students would come away with a great experience as well.” In comparing coaching to competing, the couple offered their vast experience of standing on both sides of the boards.
AGE DIFFERENCE NO BARRIER FOR FEHR AND BIVER For 15-year-old Rita Fehr and her 35-year-old pairs partner Peter
Biver, just making it to the U.S. Championships required a Herculean effort.
Although Biver has been Fehr’s singles coach since she was 10, only this fall did the duo decide to take a stab at pairs skating. San Jose was their first competition together at any level. “Tey came to me in October,” explains their coach Trudy Olt-
manns. “He took her through her pair tests, and they decided to sign up for sectionals just to see how it would go, and they got a bye. Tey called and said, ‘We have no programs!’ So we made up two programs. Everything is new — the throws are new, the lifts are new, all the spins, the side-by-side jumps — ev- erything is new.” “We’re just really
happy that we’ve had this wonderful opportunity to do something more with our skating, and Trudy has really helped us ac- complish that,” Biver says. She’s packaged us with the right music, the right cos- tume, and the right style for us, in a very short pe- riod of time.”
Te nearly 20-year
age difference between Fehr and Biver is one of the largest in the history of U.S. pairs skating. When asked what it’s like to skate with someone more than twice her age, the red-haired Fehr said, “He gets more tired than I do!”
“Rita is especially good at the throws,” Biver says. “She’s very brave
and she’s always been that way. I still remember the first day that I picked her up and put her into a lift. I said, ‘You would make a really good pairs skater,’ and she just lit up, she had this big smile on her face. I just knew at that very second she would be a good pairs skater.” Fehr and Biver reside in Minnesota and represent the Eau Claire
and St. Paul Figure Skating Clubs. Tey placed 13th in the senior pairs event in San Jose.
— Terry Terzian SKATING 29
“It’s different; you’re not skating yourself, and you’re not in control
of your own destiny, so to speak,” Sand said. “We have to help them develop, not just their skating. We have to help them be themselves out on the ice, in a pressure-packed environment.” “We know what it feels like to have a great skate, or to have a skate
which isn’t exactly what we wanted,” Meno said. “We know what it’s like to win the short program and skate last in the free. Most of the situations we’ve been in. We know what they’re going through.” In addition to Marley and Brubaker, the coaching team had two junior pairs teams competing in San Jose; Jessica Calalang and Zack Sidhu, and AnnaMarie Pearce and Craig Norris. Tey also coached two novice teams in Chelsea Liu and Devin Perini, and Hannah Klopstock and Chadwick Phillips. Liu and Perini won the novice title. Meno and Sand reside is Alisa Viejo, Calif., with their sons, Jack,
7, and Matthew, 5. — Terry Terzian
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