Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue defended their U.S. title in regal fashion at the
2019 GEICO U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit on Saturday, Jan. 26, winning the free dance to amass 215.88 total points and defeat longtime rivals
Madison Chock and Evan Bates by 4.36 points.
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker, who, like the top two teams, train at Gadbois Centre in Montreal, Quebec under Marie-France Dubreuil, Patrice Lauzon and Romain Haguenauer, had their best-ever finish at the U.S. Championships to take bronze.
"Gadbois podium!" Hawayek cried out gleefully when she crossed paths with Chock (All Year FSC) and Bates (Ann Arbor FSC) in the mixed zone, and the four skaters hugged.
Hubbell and Donohue, who both represent Lansing Skating Club, relocated from Detroit to Montreal in April 2015; the other ice dancers moved from Michigan to Montreal at the end of last season.
"It feels like a family moment," Donohue said. "We've all been pushing each other since they came. For all of us to be on the podium with our coaches here, it's a really iconic moment to treasure and use as we go forward the rest of the season."
For now, though, it is clearly Hubbell and Donohue who reign supreme. Performing to the 1996 soundtrack of
Romeo + Juliet, the powerful couple combined equal parts drama, passion and romance in a contemporary take on Shakespeare's classic tale. The skaters presented the intricate choreography with sensitivity and flair, gaining eight Level 4 elements and mostly +4 and +5 Grades of Execution.
The program flowed even better than it did at the Grand Prix Final in December, thanks to a bit of tinkering.
"We switched the one-foot (step sequence) closer to the beginning of the program, it used to be near the end," Lauzon said. "We reversed it with the spin. Having the steps at the end made it really hard for them to get all of the levels and the Grades of Execution."
With this title, Hubbell and Donohue remain undefeated this season with five victories, including their first Grand Prix Final gold.
"One of the things we've learned is to focus on our best performance, not to try to beat our competition," Hubbell said. "That's what we did here tonight. "It feels wonderful to add another title, but we know this one ends today and we head to Four Continents soon, with our teammates and also very strong Canadian competition."
Satisfying as the win is to Hubbell and Donohue, Chock and Bates may be equally thrilled with their silver medal, their fifth at this event. The two-time World medalists won the U.S. title in 2015.
"Being here in Detroit, our home, it's been so special and I'm so grateful to be healthy to be able to perform to 100 percent, and I feel very, very happy," Chock said.
All last season Chock skated in pain, due to an osteochondral lesion in her ankle sustained in August 2017. Surgery last April removed chipped bone fragments, but months of physical therapy and strength training were needed to bring her ankle back to 100 percent.
"We thought, and wanted, to do our Grand Prix events, but people smarter than us told us to recalibrate our goal to nationals," Bates said. "They were right, we were wrong. We have been working on our material for five months, though."
The couple gained mileage on their programs by competing – and winning -- at Mentor Torun Cup in Poland this month, but had little time to make changes before arriving in Detroit. Still, the free dance here was leaps and bounds ahead of that in Torun.
Opening with a slinky take on Michael Buble's version of "Fever" and skating the final minute or so to Elvis Presley's high-octane "Burning Love," Chock and Bates' free dance was pure entertainment from start to finish, highlighted by fresh-looking lifts. It earned eight Level 4 elements, including those with respective levels for each partner, and 129.19 points.
"It's such a fun, different piece of music, you don't see too many upbeat pieces in the free dance," Chock said. "I think it's nice to show that contrast and really dance. It's jazzy and inspired by Fosse. We wanted to show the true essence of dance and this vehicle does that."
Delighted with his silver medal now, Bates has high hopes to challenge for more in the coming seasons.
"I feel like we're improving week to week in Montreal, and that's what is exciting and almost addictive to us," he said. "We're in this new environment and really clicking with our coaches and really improving fast."
Hawayek and Baker, too, were in great form, performing a captivating free dance to music by The Irrepressibles featuring seamless, flowing choreography and interesting steps. It earned 120.18 points to give them a 196.95 point total.
"We're really happy with the performance and thrilled with the outcome," Detroit Skating Club's Hawayek said. "Since our move to Montreal, we're growing not only as skaters, but as people."
"It's really satisfying for the two of us, because the depth of U.S. ice dance is really phenomenal," Baker of Seattle Skating Club said. "If you are on the podium here, most likely you are top ten in the world. The other two (teams) are world medalists and we're thrilled to be alongside them and now climbing up those ranks."
Top ice dance teams having shared coaches before. But the camaraderie shown by the Gadbois trio at this U.S. Championships has been easy, spontaneous and genuine.
"You can never know for sure, but we had a pretty good idea that the fit together would be good, and these three teams could train together and help each other," Lauzon said. "The atmosphere has been amazing at the rink, really fun actually."
Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter, the 2016 World Junior champions who train at the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy in Maryland, performed a finely nuanced free dance to a Yann Tieren piano medley to place fourth with 191.50 points. It was their highest finish ever at the U.S. Championships.
"We really, really love this program, so it felt good to leave it all out there and have a blast doing it," McNamara said.
"This program really brings out our own style," Carpenter said. "Many of our programs in the past have really portrayed characters, like
Carmen or
Phantom of the Opera, so we wanted to take the opportunity with this program to really branch out from that."
Making their senior debut at the U.S. Championships,
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko placed fifth with 190.01 points.
Senior competition wraps up with the men's free skate Sunday, Jan. 27, starting at 2:10 p.m. ET.
