The men's short program today at the 2013 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships came down to two of the final three skaters, who skated strongly to put themselves on top of the leaderboard. Defending champion Jeremy Abbott put himself one step closer to his fourth national title with a three-point lead going into the free skate over last year's bronze medalist, Ross Miner.
Men's short: Play-by-play
Abbott, skating third in the final group of 20 competitors, did not quite have the ease in his jumps that he had last year in his Nationals short program. But he hit all of them cleanly, opting to take out the quad toe that has been an issue for him all season. The judges rewarded him with an 84.10, putting him just over three points ahead of Miner.
Miner took the ice immediately after Abbott and hoped to pull off the upset of the evening. Though his short program looked clean, the technical panel determined that his quad salchow was underrotated, which kept him from keeping pace with Abbott.
The competition opened superbly with the first three skaters hitting solid short programs to set the standard. Skating second, World junior silver medalist Joshua Farris fought to hold on to a triple lutz-triple toe and hit a strong triple axel to earn a 79.78, a score that would not be beaten until Abbott and Miner eclipsed him in the final group of skaters. He placed third, just ahead of the first skater of the competition, Max Aaron, who hit a quad salchow-triple toe but lost a few points on his final spin.
Former U.S. silver medalist Richard Dornbush is fifth with a 77.66, reigning silver medalist Adam Rippon is one point behind Dornbush in sixth, and World junior bronze medalist Jason Brown is seventh. Less than five points separate second place and sixth place going into the free skate.
MEN (after the short program)
1. Jeremy Abbott - 84.10
2. Ross Miner - 80.99
3. Joshua Farris - 79.78
4. Max Aaron - 79.13
5. Richard Dornbush - 77.66
6. Adam Rippon - 76.65
7. Jason Brown - 74.05
8. Jonathan Cassar - 67.03
9. Philip Warren - 66.48
10. Brandon Mroz - 66.06
11. Grant Hochstein - 65.68
12. Alexander Johnson - 65.20
13. Keegan Messing - 64.06
14. Douglas Razzano - 63.31
15. Sean Rabbitt - 62.87
16. Armin Mahbanoozadeh - 62.85
17. Stephen Carriere - 62.77
18. William Brewster - 58.62
19. Harrison Choate - 57.66
20. Wesley Campbell - 57.24
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