Emerging skaters take center stage on opening night of U.S. Championships in Wichita
The Olympians, world champions and the best of the best are coming later in the week, but Wichita was treated to a showcase of up-and-coming talent in the novice and junior divisions on Tuesday in the opening night of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Intrust Bank Arena.
An emerging star who stole the show on the first night in Wichita was 16-year-old Patrick Blackwell, who nailed a triple lutz with a triple toeloop to register a career-best score of 77.73 in the junior men’s short program. In his first U.S. Championship appearance, the Norwood, Mass. native opened up a 6-point lead on the competition entering Wednesday’s free skate to determine the medals.
“It was such an improvement from the Junior Grand Prix events,” Blackwell said. “I really tried to focus on the (Level) 4s for this competition, the spins and especially the step sequence. The jumps worked out as well.”
Blackwell will have plenty of competition for the gold, as Chicago’s Lorenzo Elano (71.60) and New Jersey’s Aleksandr Fegan (70.29) are on his heels. Fegan is the only returning medalist from last year’s national meet, where he placed first in the short program and third overall in 2024.
“My goal is always to stay clean and I was able to do that today,” Fegan said. “I felt a little more nervous this time around (at the U.S. Championships), but it also felt good to be back and skate in this arena with all the top skaters in the United States.”
An intriguing race is also shaping up in the junior pairs division, as the Minnesota pair of Reagan Moss and Jakub Galbavy set a new personal-best in the short program (55.89) to open up a narrow lead on defending U.S. champions Olivia Flores and Luke Wang (55.78) from Colorado Springs.
Flores and Wang will try to become the first junior pairs team ever to win two straight U.S. titles in Wednesday’s free skate.
“It was a fight,” Wang said. “We honestly have been training super well in terms of our short program and felt confident coming in here, so not what we hoped for. We are still happy we fought through and we tried some things new to this event.”
In junior ice dance, the Connecticut pair of Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukhin took the early lead with a score of 65.00 in the rhythm dance section. They were closely followed by the Nashville duo of Elliana and Ethan Peal, who scored 64.23 and are the only returning medalists from last year’s competition with a bronze medal.
The title will be determined in Wednesday’s free dance section.
“We normally go into the free dance being the underdog,” Elliana Peal said. “Every junior nationals, we always got fourth or fifth in the rhythm then pull up to second or third or podium in the free, so it feels really good to be in this position.”
In the novice competition, Grace and Luke Fischer of New Haven, Connecticut, took the lead in pattern dance with a score of 46.34 and the Jacksonville, Florida, duo of Juliet and Devin Meek opened up a lead in the pairs division with a score of 42.89 in the short program. Both titles will also be decided on Wednesday.
The championship-level competition begins on Thursday with the event culminating on Sunday with the men’s free skate.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 7:15 AM.
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