2016 U.S. SYNCHRONIZED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Haydenettes claim title once again; Miami also headed to Worlds by MICHAEL TERRY
24K Gold
Te Haydenettes have gotten used to stand- ing on top of the podium. And that didn’t change in 2016.
Te now-24-time U.S. synchronized skating champions won their seventh consecutive title in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Feb. 25–27. Since 1984, only five other programs have collected the gold medal.
And the Haydenettes left little doubt that
their streak would not continue. Skating their “Te Spell” short program at
Wings Stadium, the Haydenettes earned 68.66 points and led by more than 10 points heading into the free skate. Te program was highlighted by a strong wheel, block and no hold element. Tough they had a fall in their angled inter-
section in the free skate, they quickly recovered with a strong no hold element, earning them 7.50 points. Te Haydenettes’ 10-point lead ballooned into a 19-point rout after earning 133.60 points for their “Street Beats” program. Te routine por- trays an up-and-coming hip-hop dancer new to New York City who doesn’t know what to expect. “Te program components score is what was
very important for me and that was nice and high (72.94),” coach Saga Krantz said. “Te technical score is definitely something that we have to keep working on. It needs to be better.”
Krantz attended the championships having
just given birth to twin boys five weeks earlier. Attention quickly switched to the ISU’s new
synchronized skating event, the Shanghai Trophy, where the Haydenettes finished second, and the World Synchronized Skating Championships, which were held in the beginning of April. “We do the free skate successfully every sin- gle time in practice, so these mistakes at this time of the year are just flukes,” Krantz said. “It’s nice to have a quick turnaround so the team can go out and try to correct these mistakes and skate like they do in practice.”
Tis has been a one-of-a-kind season for the
Haydenettes. In addition to Krantz being pregnant, the Haydenettes started their season early in order to compete their free skate at the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona in December. Tis was the first time synchronized skating was included in this event, and pushed the Haydenettes to be competition-ready about a month earlier than previous years. “We had to be cleaner and more on top of
our game earlier,” skater Tessa Hedges said. “We figured out the artistry of the program very early on so we could do choreography and things that matched it and that we could perfect before De- cember. It’s helped us throughout the year grow a lot faster, because we had more of a sturdy base going in. Now we’re just making small tweaks and
really cleaning things up.” Perennial contender Miami University
claimed the silver medal for the second straight year, delivering a 57.96-point short program and 125.90-point free skate for 183.86 overall points. Te team received full credit for many el- ements, but missed some important calls in the free skate, including the moves, no hold and in- tersection elements. Te RedHawks realize they’ll need to improve in those areas to better their eighth-place finish a year ago at the World Cham- pionships.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what my team just
put out,” skater Tori Alexander said. “We worked so hard all season, starting our competitive season a few weeks earlier than we usually do. We had a
Senior
Skyliners
Miami University
SKATING 17
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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