The junior competition at the 2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships ended with the free dance on Friday, Jan. 25, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
After having to withdraw from their Junior Grand Prix assignments due to illness, Caroline Green (Pavilion Skating Club of Cleveland Heights) and Gordon Green (Washington Figure Skating Club) came back to the U.S. Championships to finish at the top of the podium.
"It just shows that even with challenges, we can come together and do something amazing," Caroline said.
While the Green siblings finished second in the free dance, their rhythm dance score held them high enough to finish with 172.54 points total, just over one point above second.
"Our goal was just to show what we've been working on and show how we've improved as a team," Caroline said.
The 2018 U.S. junior silver medalists skated to "Canone Inverso" by Ennio Morricone and "Caprice No. 24" by Niccolo Paganini for their free dance in which they received positive Grades of Execution on every element.
Avonley Nguyen (Washington Figure Skating Club) and Vadym Kolesnik (Skating Club of Novi) won the free dance event with 105.14 points, but it was just short of the top step of the podium.
"We tried our best, but it didn't happen today," Kolesnik said. "Now we know where we have to focus and the things we have to focus on."
Nguyen and Kolesnik had a heartfelt skate to "Demons" by Imagine Dragons and "Experience" by Ludovico Einaudi. The audience truly felt connected to the duo's performance and cheered for them throughout the program, which Nguyen said pushed her to skate better.
"At the beginning, it felt a little tight going into it, but at the end we really relaxed more," Nguyen said. "We hope that the audience could feel it because this program is very special to us."
Eliana Gropman (Pavilion Skating Club of Cleveland Heights) and Ian Somerville (Washington Figure Skating Club) were able to pull ahead to third following a fourth-place finish after the rhythm dance. The team scored 92.86 points in the free dance to total 155.46 points.
"I was really feeling everything and focused on the moment," Somerville said. "It's great knowing we have a good version of our free dance videotaped that we can show family and friends."
Gropman felt it was one of their strongest skates, which was evident in their technical score. The duo achieved Level 4 on five elements and positive Grades of Execution on everything.
The pair said they found their free dance music, a medley from the Mozart l'Opera Rock soundtrack, several years ago, but they wanted to save it for a special moment.
"Our coaches started choreographing it, but it just wasn't right at that time," Somerville said.
"We knew it was a good fit for us, but we just knew we needed to develop the maturity to portray it," Gropman added. "We're really happy we waited to use it."
Rounding out the podium are Oona Brown and Gage Brown from the Skating Club of New York. The sibling team scored 153.67 points overall. Their free dance set to "Still Got The Blues" by Gary Moore featured four Level 4 elements.
This is the first time the Browns made the podium at U.S. Championships.
"We're just really excited about it," Gage said. "It was just a good feeling after our skate."
