Pate and Bye, McNamara and Spiridonov Capture Silver and Bronze in Lake Placid

Team USA secured two more medals on the final day of the 2022 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic as Eva Pate and Logan Bye and Lorraine McNamara and Anton Spiridonov triumphed to earn silver and bronze, respectively, in Lake Placid, New York.
 
Pate and Bye brought the energy and excitement of Riverdance to the ice, improving on their third-place finish in the rhythm dance and placing second in the free skate to win silver.
 
The dynamic free dance included a Level Four dance spin and Level Four lifts with every element receiving a positive grade of execution. They claimed 106.97 points for the free dance and 179.63 overall with the total score being a new international personal best.
 
"We wanted to put out what we've been training, so I thought it went well," Bye said. "We generally like to take competitions more as tests to figure out what works, what doesn't work. It's always good to have experience."
 
"It went really well. It was a solid skate. These Challengers are nice because they're not as stressful," Pate added. "Pasquale [Camerlengo] came up with the idea [for Riverdance] … I'm very Irish, also. A lot of my relatives are Irish, so it's cool to do it and give something back to my heritage."
 
McNamara and Spiridonov secured bronze, scoring 179.03 overall and 105.86 in the free dance. They also earned all positive GOEs in their modern performance to "Rain, In Your Black Eyes" by Ezio Bosso, which included Level Four synchronized twizzles, a Level Four combination lift and a Level Four dance spin.
 
They feel they are steadily improving the free dance and are more determined than ever to keep building throughout the season.  

"Since our last competition, we worked a lot on certain things to improve them and we certainly did, but other areas weren't as clean. We're still happy with how our skate was regardless," McNamara said. "Our next event is next week [Nebelhorn Trophy], so we already have the opportunity to show improvement in such a short amount of time. We can still make steps to show improvement and we're definitely looking forward to doing so. If anything, there's more fuel behind us."
 
Finishing in sixth place, Katarina Wolfkostin and Jeffrey Chen scored 103.38 points with their spirited free dance to a Florence + the Machine medley. Like their teammates, they secured positive GOEs for each of their elements for 164.07 points overall.
 
"Overall, it was an improvement from yesterday. We're both proud of what we did out there today. Our main goal was to get ourselves out there and skate the best we can," Wolfkostin said. "For both of us, something important we learned is that even if there's a mistake in the rhythm dance, it's good to learn how to refocus, reset and skate clean for the free, which I think we did for the most part."
 
In the women's free skate, all three U.S. women finished in the top 10.
 
Audrey Shin finished just off the podium in fourth place, with a free skate score of 115.28 points. Her elegant program included a triple loop-double Axel jump sequence, Level Four spins and a Level Four step sequence. She scored 176.44 points overall.
 
"I'm a little disappointed with the pop in my program, but it's a two-week-old program," Shin said. "So, it was very rushed trying to get into the choreography. I'm glad I performed decently and I'm excited to build up from here."

Teammate Sonja Hilmer finished right behind her in fifth place, scoring 174.46 points. She improved upon her sixth-place standing in the short program, placing fourth in the long program segment with a mark of 116.53. Elements completed include Level Four spins, a Level Four step sequence and a triple Loop-double toe-double Axel jump sequence. For her efforts, she earned a personal best in her long program and overall.
 
"It was a lot of fun. It was my first time doing this program in a competition," Hilmer said. "It's brand new and I was really excited to see how it felt. I felt really good going into everything, so I definitely achieved my goal."
 
Scoring 95.12 points in her free skate and 142.53 points overall – both  international personal best scores – Jill Heiner improved upon her ninth-place finish in the short program to land in seventh place overall. She completed a double Axel, triple Lutz and triple flip in her program set to music from the soundtrack of La La Land, and felt her long program was an improvement after the short.

"It was really good. There are still things I can continue to work on," Heiner said. "I was a little nervous in the beginning, but in the second half, I know how to control my emotions and think of what I have to do. What I really need to work on during the setups in the jumps is being more involved with the audience because that will help with my presentation because I love presenting. It was good redemption from yesterday."
 
For full results and more information on the U.S. International Classic, visit the 2022 U.S. International Figure Skating Classic Competition Central.