Newsgroups: rec.sport.skating.ice.figure
Subject: 1998 Easterns report
From: Sandra Loosemore <sandra@shore.net>
Date: 07 Dec 1997 17:27:28 -0500

Now that I'm home from Easterns and have a reliable net connection
again, here's my report on the event....

I didn't see any of the intermediate events.  I saw most of the
novices (except for dance), but didn't take any detailed notes on
them.  The novice ladies event had some very good skating.  Jennifer
Kirk only landed two of the four triples in her program and wound up
second behind Cara Morrissey, who I think may be a little older than
the other girls in this group.  She's certainly much taller than they
are, at least!  Elizabeth Kwon and Sara Wheat will also be going to
Nationals, and little Evelyn Kong is the alternate.

The junior ladies field was not too strong here.  I didn't see the
short programs since that was the night before I showed up.  In the
long, Sarah Hughes certainly outjumped the rest of the field -- my
notes are that she landed two triple salchows, a loop, and a toe loop,
but that her carriage and basic skating left a lot to be desired.
Abigail Gleeson, in 2nd place, seemed to be a more pleasing and
well-rounded skater to me.

In the junior men, I was somewhat aghast when Josh Figurido completely
blew his short program, popping both the lutz and flip and 2-footing
the double axel.  Jonathan Hunt won the short because he was able to
pull off the triple flip even though his combination was only a triple
toe/double toe.  Scott Smith did double toe/triple toe, and fell on
the triple flip.  In the long, Josh came back and landed a nice triple
lutz/double toe, triple loop, and triple toe/double toe before getting
messy at the end of his program, but it was enough to pull him up to
4th place.  I think he had the most ambitious program of the event in
terms of both jumps and choreography, but I also noticed he doesn't
have quite the speed of the guys who placed ahead of him.  Anyway,
Jonathan Hunt fell on the flip in the long, but landed a triple lutz,
salchow, and toe.  Robert Schupp skated to "Henry V" and landed a
whole bunch of toe loops and salchows and a 2-footed triple flip
before falling on a sit spin at the very end of his program!  And the
winner was Scott Smith, who popped his triple lutz but did a loop and
salchow and a triple toe/triple toe towards the end of his program.  I
noticed that Scott had very good choreography and was skating right
with the music, but somebody needs to teach this boy what to do with
his arms and hands.

Junior pairs were not particularly memorable.  I did see the junior
free dance, but it only reminded me why this is probably my least
favorite event.  It seems like in the last year or two, nearly all of
the younger dance teams have been doing these wretched latin dances in
a poor imitation of the Punsalan & Swallow or Chalom & Gates style,
and there's only so much of that I can take.

OK, onto the seniors.  I didn't see the men's short programs, but to make
up for it, I'll give detailed notes on the longs:

Jeff Merica was the first skater up.  I couldn't quite place his music
off the top of my head but I think it was also used for one of the
ensembles at the Next Ice Age show at the Kennedy Center last summer,
that Jeff skated in.  He pulled off a scratchy triple flip, a
creditable but unsuccessful attempt at a triple axel, triple salchow,
and triple toe, and the lutz and loop came out as doubles.  It was a
very conservatively skated program, not particularly fast or powerful,
but with excellent carriage and edge work and interesting
choreography.  Jeff could use some more work on his spins, though.

Eric Bohnstedt abandoned the bellhop uniform he was wearing at New
Englands in favor of the black and red costume he's worn before.
Generic movie music?  I dunno, I never see any movies, so if this
program had a theme, it totally escaped me.  Triple sal, flip, toe,
and triple toe/double toe, plus better spins than Jeff, but the
choreography and connecting elements were not nearly as strong.

Michael Edgren skated to the "Frankenstein" movie music in a blue and
white outfit that looked like he might have borrowed it from Todd
Eldredge.  He took a hard fall on his triple axel attempt, landed a
salchow (or was it a loop?), and a triple flip out of footwork, and I
think that was it.  He looked tired and sloppy by the end of his program.
My notes are that his camel spin is very weak.  Anyway, this was not
a very impressive performance, and he was in last place of the 3 guys
who had skated so far, and it wasn't looking like he'd make it to
Nationals...  until....

Jason Sylvia skated next.  He landed exactly one clean triple in his
program: a toe loop.  Add to this, two failed triple axel attempts,
three other falls, a popped axel, and crummy spins.  The judges just
killed him and he dropped all the way into last place.  It was so sad.
I think it must be a problem with his nerves.  Jason has a
tremendously high triple axel which I've seen him land quite regularly
in practices, but it seems that the bigger the competition, the worse
he skates.  

So, Shepherd Clark was last to skate.  Nice black & white costume, the
Warsaw concerto program.  He fell hard on his triple axel attempt,
landed lutz and salchow, popped the second triple axel, two-footed a
triple flip, clean triple loop/double loop, fell on a triple toe, and
popped another axel before finishing with a spectacular spin
combination that included a nice layback.  Shep skates really fast and
this is a good program.  He didn't get really high marks because of
all the mistakes (like, 5.1's for technical and 5.3's for
presentation), but he still won easily.

OK, on to the ladies.  Alice Sue Claeys won the short program with a
two-footed triple loop/double toe as her combination, and a triple toe
out of footwork.  I think she may have picked up another deduction on
her spin combination because it seemed like she was short of rotation
in the camel position.  OTOH, her flying camel was fine and she's
still doing interesting position and edge variations in her spins.
Morgan Rowe did triple lutz/double toe but dropped out of her triple
toe on two feet and her spins were quite unremarkable.  Christine Kong
skated a clean short with a triple sale/double toe and triple toe out
of footwork.  Among other notables, Alizah Allen took herself out of
contention by stepping out of both her double axel and triple toe on
two feet and falling on her butt on the triple salchow.  It's the same
short program she had last year.  (BTW, Alizah has cut her hair and
lightened it a few shades as well.  I didn't even recognize her at
first.)  Kathaleen Kelly Cutone likewise took herself out by falling
on her triple toe and doing only a double salchow as the jump out of
footwork.  And, Stacey Pensgen, who had a very ambitious program
planned, stepped out of her double axel on two feet, fell on her
triple flip, and popped her triple lutz, all of which left her in 12th
place out of 13.

As luck would have it, Stacey drew first to skate in the long.  This
time the lutz came out as a double, and she also landed triple
toe/double toe, triple sal/double toe, and made a creditable attempt
at the triple flip.  She really *does* have a triple lutz, though -- I
saw her landing some really big ones in the warmups.  I think she just
lacks confidence and experience with doing them in competition.
Morgan Rowe fell on her butt on her triple lutz attempt, and again on
a triple salchow, and two-footed a triple toe/double toe combination.
But she was able to regroup and pull off a salchow and toe loop at the
end of her program and that was enough to give her the win.  Alice Sue
Claeys started out with a huge triple toe/double toe combination but
that was it for her as far as triples went -- she popped her loop,
fell on a salchow, and skated very conservatively for the remainder of
her program.  She's skating to "Carmen", BTW.  Oh, and somebody was
wondering when other skaters would copy Michelle Kwan's change-of-edge
spiral -- Alice Sue has one in her long.  Christine Kong skated a
messy long program, I think landing only one triple cleanly and
dropping out of both her double axels on two feet, but she was able to
move up because Kristina Melton and Yvette Tong, who had been ahead of
her in the short program, both turned in even worse long programs.
Kathaleen Kelly Cutone missed all three triples in her program and
failed to land a double axel and wound up in 7th place overall.  Her
connecting elements and spins and presentation looked as good as
always to me, but the judges really killed her in the marks, and I
have to think that they're sending her a message that it's time to
quit.  Alizah Allen has a new program to "Spartacus" that's very
interesting, but I believe she also failed to land either a triple or
a double axel cleanly so she isn't going to make it to Nationals this
year either.  The top four in the overall standings were Rowe, Claeys,
Kong, and Pengsen.  This is pretty amazing success for Christine Kong,
BTW, since last year she was a very unremarkable junior who failed to
make it out of regionals!

I don't have much to say about the senior pairs.  Laura Handy and Paul
Binnebose were clearly the class of the field, with a huge double
twist and good lifts.  They have pretty good unison for such a new
team, as well.  All four of the pairs competing here get to move on to
Nationals.  Likewise for the four couples in senior dance.  This year
many familiar faces were gone (no Amy & Ron, in particular!) and we
had two new pairings in Bikbova & Lee and Cronin & Durango, along with
Soderberg & Lipowitz (who I remembered from two years ago and who have
improved greatly since then) and DeWitt & Fenczak (who I know nothing
about).  Bikbova & Lee were leading all the way through the
compulsories and original dance.  For their free dance they did
"Summertime" with lots of lifts and other tricks.  At one point they did
the fetal-position swing that they borrowed from Grishuk & Platov and
then both fell as they were getting out of it.  Then Soderberg & Lipowitz,
who'd been in 2nd place throughout, did a much more dancey "Swing Kids"
program, and wound up winning.  I'm not sure if it was the fall that made
the difference or if the judges were just more impressed by footwork
than lifts.

A couple more random notes about the competition....  

It was truly appreciated that they turned up the heat in the rink for
this event.  At past Easterns I've been to, it's been so cold that you
were in serious danger of hypothermia from sitting in the rink all
day.

My vote for the most over-used music of the season has to go to
Borodin's Polovitsian Dances.  I lost track of how many times I heard
this music in 3 days of competition!

There were elite practice sessions for the normal Simsbury crew being
held in one of the rinks concurrently with the competition on both
Thursday and Friday afternoons.  Crisha Gossard apparently got
permission from Bob Young to skate.  She's a very lovely skater, with
great edges and spins.  Thursday she managed to land a triple loop but
on Friday's session she couldn't manage it in spite of many attempts.
Scott Davis was looking very hot, landing triple axel/triple toe,
triple flip/triple toe, and working on triple lutz/triple toe as well.
He spent most of his time doing runthroughs of his "Still Got the
Blues" exhibition program.  Viktor Petrenko, who pulled out of the
Canadian Pro competition with a supposed injury, clearly was not
injured at all, since he was also doing triple axel/triple toe on
Friday!  Katia Gordeeva practiced "Smile" and a new program to the
Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasilieras #5, which Denise Biellmann has also
used.  Navka & Morozov were putting together a show program to that
piece of music that Hartshorn & Sweiding do in the hooded costumes.
They were doing this lift where he carries her around upside-down in a
split position, which looked pretty neat, but they were having a lot
of trouble figuring out how to get her back on the ice again from that
position.  Finally, Brandon Forsyth, who was a junior dance medallist
last year with Kerrie O'Donnell, is now skating with Emily Nussear,
who used to be a pairs skater.  I heard that their partnership was
supposed to be a secret but it can hardly be a secret any more now
that they were seen skating together by so many people (including, no
doubt, many officials and coaches) who were hanging out at Simsbury
for the competition!  In fact, especially since Bob Young even had his
skates on and was out there supervising the elite sessions himself, it
seemed like it was all deliberately orchestrated to show off the
Simsbury skating program in front of all of the influential visitors.

-Sandra