in this sport, so I feel goals make me feel more accomplished,” he said. “I spend so much money and time in the sport that it’s important for me to feel that I achieved something in the end, that it doesn’t go to waste. Tis win will help me when I move up to novice.” Tose are mature sentiments from a 12-year-
old seventh-grader whose aforementioned goals rested solidly on improving from his performance at the 2016 Eastern Sectional Championships in November.
“I wanted to land the triple toe,” he said. “I fell on it at sectionals so I wanted to conquer it. I wanted to skate stronger than I did at sectionals, because I didn’t really change my program. I felt I could have, watching myself at sectionals, skated a lot stronger.” Skate stronger indeed.
Kang won Easterns with 104 points plus
change. He won his first U.S. title with a score of 123.61, 12 points more than silver medalist Alex Wellman.
Another thing that helps motivate Kang —
a friendly rivalry. Kang has trained the last two years at the University of Delaware alongside bronze medalist Jordan Evans. “I’m pretty competitive by nature so some-
times I see Jordan and I want to do better than him,” Kang said. Evans and coach Pam Gregory agree. “You always perform better when you have
rivalry in the rink,” Evans said. “It pushes you and makes you a better skater. Having that extra little push gets it to the next level.” Added Gregory, “Te rivalry is terrific in the
rink. Tey have camaraderie but push each other to be better on a daily basis.” Evans didn’t have an easy road to nab his po- dium spot this year, as the 14-year-old developed
Jasmine Fendi and Joshua Fendi
an offseason hip injury from which he had to re- cover.
“I was injured earlier in the summer, so get- ting back into everything was tough,” he said. “I’m healed now and my goal was to make nation- als. I thought overall I did pretty well and skated to my potential.” Wellman (Central Illinois FSC) also had
some of his own adversity to overcome. He strug- gled with the disappointment of finishing seventh at the 2015 Midwestern Sectional Championships, grew several inches, and ultimately sacrificed other activities to focus on figure skating. His desire to be at the 2016 U.S. Championships has driven him to this point, and with good results. Wellman’s coach, Madalyn Brook, summed
up her student’s struggles and achievements in a few words. “Last year was a crusher. We had to set some
goals,” Brook explained. “I told him last year he needed triples. Now he’s got them. He kind of had triple toe and triple loop but he didn’t feel secure in them so he’s worked very hard this year to be where he is. I think he skated fantastically.” Lucas Altieri (Panthers FSC) rounded out
the men’s podium, finishing fourth with 105.25 points.
PAIRS By Troy Schwindt A year ago at the U.S. Championships in
Greensboro, North Carolina, Jasmine Fendi and her twin brother Joshua led the intermediate field after the short program. But the next day, the 12-year-olds discov-
ered that they couldn’t match the strength and power of their older competitors in the free skate, settling ultimately for the pewter medal.
In Saint Paul, the Fendis (Los Angeles FSC)
showed up bigger, stronger, faster and ready to take on all challengers.
Te ninth graders at Los Alamitos High
School breezed to the short program lead and clinched the title (101.48) with their winning free skate to West Side Story. Tey featured overhead press lifts, strong jumps, synched-up spins and outstanding ice coverage. “Tey’ve really worked hard on the physicality
of the work and trying to get the flow and the power and the execution,” coach Peter Oppegard said. “We just got the press lift recently and we successfully did it in the program,” Joshua said. “We’ve been working on it all year long. We do a lot of off-ice work with our trainer. It felt pretty solid, the whole lift.” For the free skate, the team started with the
overhead press lift followed by a throw that Jas- mine fought to land. She did fall on their side-by- side double flips, but they rallied to land the rest of the jumps and throws.
“I think maybe I just lost a little bit of fo-
cus,” Jasmine said of the fall. “Jasmine doubted herself a little bit today on
the jumping; she’s been doing really well jumping all week,” Oppegard said. “She just has to go out there and believe in what she’s been doing, but I’m really liking where their heads are at, and their ability to handle the competition and the improve- ment they are making each year. I think they some- times move as one, which I really like to see.” Te Fendis won the juvenile title in Boston in 2014; this is their fifth time at the U.S. Cham- pionships.
Another team making a big move, Eliana
Secunda and Blake Eisenach (Rocky Mountain FSC) of Colorado, captured the silver medal with a score of 97.48.
58 MARCH 2016
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