Team USA Earns Four Medals in Germany

Team USA earned four medals at Nebelhorn Trophy  in Oberstdorf, Germany, and had a strong showing at the Junior Grand Prix in Zagreb, Croatia.

Nebelhorn Trophy
 
Mariah Bell led the American contingent as she came away with Team USA's only gold medal of the weekend, finishing first in the ladies event at Nebelhorn Trophy and beating second-place finisher Yelim Kim by 18.86 points.
 
The 2019 U.S. bronze medalist finished fourth in the event in 2018 but kicked off her season by recording a short program score of 68.45, which vaulted her to the top of the leaderboard entering the free skate.
 
Bell continued her dominance in the free skate, receiving a score of 138.68 for a total score of 205.13 en route to taking home the gold.
 
Korea's Yelim Kim (186.27) earned silver and Nicole Schott (177.76) of Germany received bronze.
 
Alexa Knierim and Chris Knierim put on a silver medal-winning performance in the pairs competition. The duo scored 70.83 in the short program and 131.58 in the free skate, scoring silver for the second straight year.
 
American duo Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier received a cumulative score of 181.70 and finished sixth.
 
Canada's Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Mariano (210.35) won gold, and the DPRK's Tae Ok Ryom and Ju Sik Kim (183.02) took home bronze.
 
Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean Luc-Baker secured another medal for Team USA, as they earned silver in the ice dance.
 
In their season debut, the duo headed into Saturday's free dance in fourth place after scoring 75.77 in the rhythm dance but rallied to second after scoring 116.70 in the free dance to earn silver.
 
Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko earned bronze with a combined score of 190.35, while Canada's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen (201.00) secured gold.

Junior Grand Prix Croatia
 
Andrew Torgashev led the way for Team USA in the Junior Grand Prix in Croatia with a fourth-place finish.
 
Making his second JGP appearance of the season, Torgashev recorded a score of 80.53 in the short program and 132.33 in the free skate for a total score of 212.86.
 
The other American in the junior men's field, Daniel Martynov (145.02), finished 15th.
 
Russians Andrei Mozalev (236.44) and Artur Danielian (223.82) finished first and second, respectively, while Japan's Shun Sato (219.69) scored bronze.
 
After finishing sixth at JGP Latvia, Molly Cesanek and Yehor Yehorov finished sixth again in the ice dance competition with a total score of 144.82, while Katarina DelCamp and Ian Somerville finished 10th.
 
Georgia's Maria Kazakova and Georgy Reviya (169.22) secured gold, Sofya Tyutyunina and Alexpander Shustitskiy (154.39) of Russia grabbed silver, and Canada's Emmy Bronsard and Alissa Bouaraguia (149.97) rounded out the podium.
 
In the pairs competition, Isabelle Martins and Ryan Bedard took home an 11th-place finish.
 
The Illinois-based duo scored 37.94 points in their short program before recording 83.13 points in the free skate.
 
The Russians took home gold and silver, with duos Iulilia Artemeva and Mikhail Nazarychev (179.83), and Diana Mukhametzianova and Ilya Mironov (177.58) finishing first and second, respectively. Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel (156.31) of Germany grabbed bronze.
 
Gabriella Izzo headlined the ladies event in Croatia, finishing eighth with a combined score of 149.71.
 
Sarah Jung, the 2019 U.S. junior pewter medalist, recorded 54.17 in the short program and 94.64 in the free skate, coming away with a total score of 148.81 and a 10th-place finish.
 
South Korea's Haein Lee (134.11) took home gold, while Russians Daria Usacheva (126.10) finished with silver and Ana Frolova (114.03) grabbed bronze in the final event of the weekend.
 
The JGP Series will continue next week in Italy, while the Challenger Series has a break in action and will resume on Oct. 11 in Finland for the Finlandia Trophy.