The pairs and men's short programs kicked off the first day of events at the 2022 U.S. International Classic. Two U.S. pairs teams are in medal position, and
Camden Pulkinen sits in third place, leading the U.S. men in Lake Placid, New York.
Emily Chan and Spencer Howe scored 61.71 to place second, behind Italy's Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini (64.78). Skating to "Nyah" by CH2, the intense flamenco program included a Level 4 footwork sequence and a Level 4 triple twist. Going into the free skate, they are focusing on their output and their elements.
"One thing Emily and I are all about is just giving," Howe said. "So, I definitely want to make that effort to just give through the performance. Of course, we want Emily to do all of her elements and when we get there we will be focusing on that."
Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez are sitting in third place with 56.20 points after the short program. Their
West Side Story performance included four Level 4 elements, including a strong triple twist and death spiral.
"We didn't skate our best, but it's a learning experience," Plazas said. "It's our second international event in a week, so we're tired, but we're putting what we can out there. I think today was just going out there and getting our feet under ourselves, and tomorrow will be better for sure."
In their senior international debut,
Maria Mokhova and Ivan Mokhov are in fourth with 54.65 points, while
Megan Wessenberg and Blake Eisenach earned 46.94 points to finish sixth.
In the men's short program competition, Pulkinen skated to a dreamy rendition of "Fly Me to the Moon," earning 77.44 points for his efforts. Highlights of the performance included a triple Lutz, which earned positive GOEs, and three Level 4 spins. He acknowledged that he has some work to do, but was happy with the effort that earned him the third place position heading into the free skate.
"Overall I'm pretty happy with how I did. I trained really well for this competition, so I'm happy with somewhat executing all the elements," he said. "There were some composition issues with that footwork. So I'm kind of happy with that progress I made, but we still need to go home and work on the composition and work a little more on the timing of elements, so then I'm not five or six seconds late on the footwork."
Filling out the rest of the top three, Kevin Aymoz of France placed first with 83.52 points and Mark Gorodnitsky of Israel got second with 77.65 points.
Ilia Malinin is in sixth with a score of 71.84. He attempted a quad Lutz and a quad toe loop in combination, landing a huge triple Axel with positive GOEs and completing two Level 4 spins and a Level 4 step sequence.
"I'm kind of tired, because there's a little bit of altitude here. It'll get easier as the competitions go by," Malinin said. "I want to get used to getting back into the competition season and starting to compete again."
Team USA teammates
Jimmy Ma (69.88) and
Eric Sjoberg (47.49) finished in eighth and 11th place, respectively.
Competition continues tomorrow with the rhythm dance, women's short program, pairs free skate and men's free skate. Fans can catch up on the action on the
U.S. International Classic Competition Central.
