SENIOR PA IR S Blast off!
Scimeca and Knierim launch quad twist in victory Denney and Frazier, Kayne and O’Shea land on podium
by TROY SCHWINDT While their full attention is on prepar-
ing for the World Championships later this month, 2015 U.S. pairs champions Alexa Scimeca and Christopher Knierim look for- ward to being able to savor and enjoy the title they earned in Greensboro, North Car- olina.
“I think I’ll feel different when we go
to shows and are introduced as national champions,” Scimeca said. Te 23-year-old Chicago-area native, who trains with her 27-year-old fiancé in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has also thought about what it will be like when they see their U.S. Championships banner hanging from the rafters at the World Are- na Ice Hall, next to such greats as Olympic champions Hayes Jenkins, David Jenkins and Peggy Fleming.
“I told my little friend who came to watch us skate last summer that my goal was to get a banner,” Scimeca said. “So it’s going to be really cool. I even asked our rink manager if I could rhinestone the banner.” Receiving their World Team jackets and seeing their names inscribed on the coveted Tiffany sterling silver U.S. Figure Skating Championship Trophy also mean a great deal to Scimeca and Knierim. “When our names get placed on the
trophy, make sure you call us so we can come right over,” Scimeca said. Teir enthusiasm and genuine joy for
their accomplishment is easy to appreciate when one looks back at their spectacular and nearly flawless performances at the Greensboro Coliseum. Teir short program, performed to the
music “El Tango de Roxanne,” set a new re- cord for a pairs short program at the U.S. Championships with a score of 74.01. Tey landed their side-by-side triple Salchows — their nemesis element all season — as well as executed an impressive triple twist, smooth reverse lasso lift and monster throw triple flip. “Finally, huh? Geez, we’ve all been waiting,” Knierim said, referring to the
20 MARCH 2015
team’s blemished performances during the Grand Prix season. With a lead of 5.63 points, Scimeca and Knierim put an exclamation point on their weekend with a program that started off with fireworks — a towering quad twist. Te daring element received 10.53 points, including 2.43 points for its grade of execution. It marked the first time that a U.S. pairs team had executed the quad twist in competition. Tey talked about putting the risky element into the program immediately fol- lowing their Grand Prix event in France in November.
“I got the phone call from them say-
ing, ‘We want to get back to trying the quad twist,’” coach Dalilah Sappenfield said. “Tey had watched the Chinese and felt, ‘We can do this.’ I had some conditions, though.” Sappenfield, who has guided four se- nior teams to five titles in the past eight years, had a professional from the sports medicine department at the Olympic Training Center come to the rink. “For me, Chris had to do an injury pre-
vention plan, because there’s more pound- ing on the man because you are catching a little later and the pressure is a lot different.” Tey also took it one week at a time,
making sure that the twist wasn’t going to affect any of the other elements. “We had worked so hard on unison,
choreography, skating skills, making the jumps consistent, the throws more techni- cally sound that we didn’t want the quad to be the only thing,” she said. Te plan worked beautifully in Greens-
boro, as Scimeca and Knierim moved past the quad twist to their side-by-side triple Salchows, which they again landed soundly. Tey continued stringing together element after element in their free skate to An Amer- ican in Paris. Tey finished with a U.S. Championships record free skate score and a U.S. Championships record overall total of 210.49 points.
GOLD Alexa Scimeca/ Chris Knierim, 210.49
SILVER Haven Denney/ Brandon Frazier, 199.92
BRONZE Tarah Kayne/ Daniel O’Shea, 185.31
PEWTER Madeline Aaron/ Max Settlage, 175.74
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
PAIRS
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