Lorraine McNamara and Anton Spiridonov led the U.S with a podium finish, earning a silver in the ice dance discipline to close out the 2023 World University Games in Lake Placid, New York.
McNamara and Spiridonov were in first after the rhythm dance. The duo's short program included a Level 4 twizzle sequence, which helped earn them 69.12 points. In the free dance, McNamara and Spiridonov earned 106.21 points resulting in a second-place finish overall with 175.33 points. Skating to "Rain, In Your Black Eyes" by Ezio Bosso, their free skate program included a well-executed Level 4 lift combo earning them an 11.51 elemental value.
Teammates Angela Ling and Caleb Wein finished the rhythm dance with an international personal best of 67.74 points. Ling and Wein ended the free dance with 158.52 points overall for a sixth-place finish.
Rounding out the American trio in the ice dance event, Rafella Koncius and Alexey Schepetov finished seventh with 154.03 overall points.
France claimed the other top podium spots as Marie Dupayage and Thomas Nabais took gold and Natacha Laggouge and Arnaud Caffa took bronze with 176.04 and 167.35 points, respectively.
In the men's event, Team USA had three top 25 finishes.
Dinh Tran finished ninth overall with 198.59 points. Skating to music from the
Matrix, his free skate featured two big combination jumps: a triple Axel-double toe, and triple toe-double Axel-double Axel.
Not far behind Tran, U.S. teammate Guko Endo finished 12th overall (194.08). Rounding out the men's event was Nathaniel Chapple, who finished 23rd with 153.04 points.
Japan and Italy split the top three spots. Japan's Sota Yamamoto (274.86) and Tatsuya Tsuboi (243.82) earned the first and second place spots and Italy's Nikolay Memola took third with 231.33 points.
The women finished out the weekend in Lake Placid with two top-25 finishes. Wren Warne-Jacobsen led Team USA with a 15
th place finish earning 143.75 points. Teammate Finley Hawk finished 23rd with 111.53 points.
Japan clinched the gold and silver with Mai Mihara (145.85) taking gold and Olympic bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto (139.02) taking second. Kim Yelim from South Korea finished third with 126.43 points.
The eleven-day multisport competition will continue in Lake Placid through January 22.
