Three members of Team USA won their first Challenger Series medal as
Liam Kapeikis and
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville clinched gold at the 2022 IceChallenge in Graz, Austria.
Team USA's medal count at the Challenger Series now stands at 13.
In the men's event, Kapeikis earned a score of 76.46 for his short program to music from
Mask of Zorro, earning nearly 12 points on his triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination and Level 4s on each of his spins.
Going into the free skate in first place, Kapeikis held on to overall the top spot, earning a season-best free skate score of 146.56. He opened with a quad Salchow, earning positive grades of execution on the element for the first time in competition. The 2022 Junior World team member went on to score 223.02 overall to not only win his first Challenger Series medal, but to make it a gold. Â
Competing as a senior for the first time this season,
Will Annis finished 18th, jumping up from 21st after the short program. Following his short program score of 48.63, Annis improved his placement thanks to a triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow combination and scored 108.38 for his free skate and 162.39 overall.
Sweden's Andreas Nordeback earned silver (218.25) and Nikita Starostin of Germany brough home bronze (217.04).
In the ice dance competition, Team USA's
Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville earned their first Challenger Series gold in just their second year competing together.
Bratti and Sommerville skated to first place in the rhythm dance and claimed a new international personal best score by opening with a set of sequential twizzles that earned a Level 4 distinction. Ending with a Level 4 rotational lift, every element earned a positive grade of execution for a score of 71.61.
In the free dance, Bratti and Somerville earned impressive Level 4 marks for their straight-line lift and rotational lift combination, stationary lift, synchronized twizzles and dance spin. They were rewarded with a free dance score of 107.46 for 179.07 overall.
This marks their fourth Challenger Series event and first medal.
Molly Cesanek and Yehor Yehorov placed fifth overall and finished strong, taking third in the free dance.
Improving on their fifth-place performance in the rhythm dance, in which the pair earned their highest marks on well-executed Level 4 sequential twizzles to score 58.43 points, Cesanek and Yehorov finished the free dance in third with a score of 94.60.
While skating to music from the ballet
Spartacus, they executed Level 4s on each of their lifts and their dance spin, including their stationary lift and rotational lift which was their highest scoring element, receiving more than 12 points from the judges. The skate earned them an overall score of 153.03.
Natacha Lasouge and Amaud Caffa of France earned silver (160.43) and Lily Hensen and Nathan Lickers rounded out the podium in third (155.30).
In the women's event,
Clare Seo and
Gracie Gold earned placements in the top 10, placing eighth and ninth, respectively.
Seo competed on the senior stage for the first time in Austria. Although she ended the short program 16th with 46.73 points, in the free skate Seo climbed up to fourth place with a segment score of 111.76. Her performance to "Summer" and "Winter" from Vivaldi's
Four Seasons included a triple Lutz-double Axel sequence in the second half of the program as well as two Level 4 spins. She earned an overall score of 158.49 and finished eighth.
For Gold, the top-10 result marked her best finish on the Challenger Series circuit this season. Â
Gold earned three Level 4 spins to finish seventh with 55.00 points in the short program. In the free skate, she earned 99.22 points for a total score of 154.22.
Anna Pezzetta of Italy won gold (174.49), Canada's Kaiya Ruiter earned silver (172.42) and Kimmy Repond of Switzerland secured bronze (169.35).
The next Challenger Series event Team USA will compete in will be the Warsaw Cup in Warsaw, Poland, Nov. 17-20. To keep up with Team USA results and access streaming links, visit U.S. Figure Skating's
Challenger Series Competition Central.
