with my friends in the stands and cheer each other on. Tat’s my favorite thing about competitions.” “Hanna is our little firecracker,” Ganicheva
said. “She’s a very athletic, emotional and exciting child. Every day working with her is fun and chal- lenging. She doesn’t want to work on doubles, she wants to work on triples.” Letov and Ganicheva train a large group of
skaters at Dr Pepper StarCenter in Plano, Texas, including 10 athletes who qualified for the 2016 U.S. Championships. Teir juvenile girls often share the ice with junior champion Emily Chan and junior silver medalist Vivian Le. “You know you have someone there to train
with, you’re not doing it by yourself,” Ciarochi said. “Tat’s what motivates me. I try to keep up, but sometimes I can’t.” Letov thinks she is keeping up just fine. “Stephanie already has a triple Salchow, and
she is working on her triple toe,” he said. “She will have all of her triples next season for sure.” Reagan Scott didn’t hit the opening double
Axel in her “Cotton-eyed Joe” program, but spar- kling performance quality and other solid double jumps gave her 53.33 points and the bronze medal. “Te program is fun to do,” Scott, who com-
petes for Hershey FSC, said. “I get to express my feelings to the judges and to the audience. I tried to up my score by having more fun and impress the judges with my smile and energy.” Scott did land a double Axel in the six-min-
ute warm-up. “My legs were just a little bit shaky in the
program,” she said. “It was the first time she tried the Axel in
competition,” Scott’s coach, Maria Pocheykina, said. “Overall the level of performance was really, really high. I’m proud of her.” Jill Heiner (FSC of Southern Maryland) won the pewter medal with 52.82 points.
BOYS By Renee Felton
Stephanie Ciarochi
GIRLS By Lynn Rutherford A year ago, Stephanie Ciarochi never
dreamed she would win the juvenile girls title, at least not this season. When she started training under husband-and-wife coaches Aleksey Letov and Olga Ganicheva in the Dallas area 10 months ago, she had no double jumps and limited com- petitive experience. What she did have was a strong work ethic. “She is like a working machine,” Ganicheva said. “Tis girl has goals and I’m sure she’s going to reach them. I have to go on the ice and say, ‘You need to take a rest now, you are going to overtrain and hurt yourself.’ And she will say, ‘But
I want to do more.’” Te athletic Ciarochi (Dallas FSC) showed good speed and hit two big double Axels in her free skate to “Danse Macabre.” She notched 54.62 points, edging training partner Hanna Harrell for the title by less than a point. “I think it went well, but on my death drop I kind of stumbled and lost my balance,” Ciaro- chi said. “It was just nerves. Everything else went pretty well.” Harrell (Dallas FSC) landed the first double
Axel in her free skate to Russian Gypsy guitar mu- sic, but fell on her second. She also showed two Level 4 spins to win the silver medal with 53.90 points.
“I love dressing up in costumes and doing girly stuff,” Harrell said. “It’s really fun to hang out
U.S. juvenile champion Ilia Malinin makes the most of his days, juggling fifth grade, skat- ing and simply getting from place to place. Te Woodbridge, Virginia-based athlete makes a one- hour trek daily with his parents (who are also his coaches) Tatyana Malinina and Roman Skornya- kov to Reston, Virginia, to train.
A typical day includes a 4:30 a.m. wake-up
call, skating from 6 to 8 a.m. and then heading to school. Due to scheduling and ice time, two hours is the average amount he can train per day. “As his coach and as his mother, I’m doubly
proud of him because he’s working so hard when he is on the ice,” Malinina said. “We try to get on the ice as much as possible but usually we are only training in the morning.” Despite those less-than-ideal conditions, the
spitfire Malinin (Washington FSC) was prepared and poised in his second U.S. Championships. His JFK free skate featured two double
Axels, including one in combination; both earned positive grades of execution. He finished with a total of 58.06 points. “My favorite part was when I landed both of
my Axels,” he said. “I’ve been working on it for six months.”
SKATING 51
PHOTO BY JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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