OMAHA, Neb.- Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir hold the lead after the senior paris short program at the US Figure Skating Championships Thursday.
Of the Skating Club of Boston, Castelli and Shnapir notched a 62.27, nine points better than Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay (53.19). Alexa Scimeca and Christopher Knierim are third (52.79).
“What we put out there, all we control is our skating,” Shnapir said, “and that’s all we really focus on, we can’t really focus on what’s going on behind us.”
It was not the best day for Tiffany Vise and Don Baldwin, who train with the Coyotes Skating Club of Arizona at the Ice Den in Scottsdale. Vise fell on their second jump and brushed the ice with her hand on the third and finished 10th of 10 pairs (44.41).
“The whole field here in the pairs event is really strong,” Bartholomay said of there only being 10 teams this year. “I think everybody we have is competing really strong, I just watched the junior pairs event, and I really saw great skating coming up, so next year, hopefully, we’ll have a bigger field.”
Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier are in fourth and Lindsay Davis and Mark Ladwig fifth.
The championship pairs long program continues Saturday.
In addition to the seniors, representing the Broadmoor Skating Club, Britney Simpson and Matthew Blackmer won the junior pairs gold medal (146.44), and winning the bronze medal after a first-place short program were Madeline Aaron (of the Coyotes Skating Club) and Max Settlage (138.41). Also of the Coyotes Skating Club, Caitlin Fields and Jason Pacini, placed seventh (116.43) with the fifth-best short program.
Polina Edmunds of the Peninsula Skating Club won the ladies junior title with a 159.80, while Dyllan McIntee of the Skating Club of Phoenix finished seventh (116.03).
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