Chock and Bates Take Big Lead into Free Dance, Liu Secures Second in Short Program

Madison Chock and Evan Bates took a commanding lead in the rhythm dance on Day 2 of 2025 Saatva Skate America at 1980 Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York, putting them in position to lock a position at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2025 with a gold or silver medal on Sunday.

This would be Chock and Bates' fifth Skate America gold, which would tie Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto for the most golds in ice dance history at Skate America.

Later in the day, Alysa Liu delivered a sterling short program and put herself in contention for the title. The reigning World champion who is competing at Skate America for the first time trails the leader by less than a point heading into Sunday's free skate.

Should Liu win the event or finish second, she would secure a Grand Prix Final berth and the first gold for the United States at a fully international Skate America since 2016.

In the men's event, Jason Brown led the United States with a fourth-place result. Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe just off the podium with fourth in pairs.

Chock and Bates took a big step toward winning their record-tying fifth Skate America title, claiming the rhythm dance with a score of 84.77.

The three-time and reigning World champions are shooting for their 22nd Grand Prix Series medal. They are the two-time and reigning Grand Prix Final champions.

In Lake Placid, Chock and Bates performed their rhythm dance to a Lenny Kravitz medley.

"The 90s is the best," Chock said of the rhythm dance required theme for this season. "There's so much nostalgia for the 90s. … We had a lot of fun listening for music. I just love skating to Lenny Kravitz. He has so much energy and style, and that just comes through in his voice and in his music, so we really try to embody that on the ice."

Chock and Bates, who won Cup of China earlier this Grand Prix campaign, received solid marks across the board, earning a grade of execution of more than three points on their first four elements. Their midline step sequence generated a program-best 11.19 points.

"I feel we made a lot of improvements since Cup of China and we performed really well today," Chock said. "I'm so proud of how we skated and enjoyed the moment together."

Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko placed fifth in the segment with 72.74 points. The two-time and reigning U.S. silver medalists performed to "Sweet Dreams" by La Bouche and "100% Pure Love" by Crystal Waters.

While happy with their overall performance, their score took a hit on their midline step sequence and pattern dance type step sequence.

"[We had] a lot of levels that were left on the table," Ponomarenko said. "You can't be competitive with a [pattern dance type step sequence] base and Level 1 Level 1 footwork. That's really what ice dance is is the turns. We will work on those turns when we get back home and also carry some positive momentum, because we skated much better than we did at Skate Canada, so I think focusing on the positives and carrying that momentum into the free dance." 

Carreira and Ponomarenko, fifth at the 2025 World Championships, started their Olympic campaign with a silver medal at Nebelhorn Trophy and a fourth-place finish at Skate Canada International.

Oona Brown and Gage Brown kicked off their Grand Prix season with score of 70.25.

The New York siblings, who will compete next weekend at Finlandia Trophy, performed to "Jump Around" by hip hop group House of Pain.

"We both enjoy old music," Oona Brown said. "These past two years have been great for us —70s, 80s and 90s."

"I feel any song that we choose really resonates with us," Gage Brown added. "We meticulously choose a song we can perform our best. Hip hop has always been one of our favorite genres and it feels natural for us."

The Browns received Level 4s for their sequential twizzles and rotational lift.

Fifth at the 2025 U.S. Championships, the Browns started this season fast with a silver medal at Denis Ten Memorial and a gold medal at Lake Placid International.

In the women's competition, Liu, the 2025 World champion, performed brilliantly to "Promise" by Laufey, securing the event's top program components score of 35.00. She finished with 73.73 points in the segment.

Liu, who clinched silver at Cup of China earlier this season, started with two solid jumps before receiving Level 4s for all three of her spins and her step sequence.

"I feel really good with that skate, and I also feel good because I had my friend in the audience, so that gave me extra energy," Liu said. "And the home crowd. The Lutz-loop probably could have been better – I haven't watched it back – but one competition I going to hit it."

Liu has fond memories of Lake Placid and the Herb Brooks Arena, where she became the first U.S. women to land a quadruple Lutz in a competition at the ISU Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid in 2019. In her record-breaking free skate, she also became the first woman in the world to land a quad and triple Axel in the same program in a competition.

Starr Andrews turned up the fun dial in her routine to Beyoncé's "Who Run the World (Girls)."

"I had so much fun today," Andrews said. "In the past I was stressed the entire time, but today I felt weirdly calm. … I don't think I ever had that much fun doing my footwork before. I'm usually 'better not put your foot down in this cluster, don't step out of this twizzle, don't drag your foot.' But today I was just going to have fun."

Andrews, the 2023 U.S. pewter medalist, said she's been working with a mental coach, who has helped her to not "overthink" things and just experience the moment.

"I'm a chronic over-thinker," she said. "I overthink everything, even conversations I have with people I'll overthink them. … Working with the mental coach has helped a lot."

Andrews delivered positive GOEs on six of seven elements, including on her opening triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination that generated a program-high 9.36 points. She received Level 4s for all three spins. Her score of 64.38 was sixth-best in the segment.

Josephine Lee made her Grand Prix Series debut, producing a score of 54.24 and finishing in 12th place.

Lee skated to "Objection (Tango)" by Shakira.

"It was an honor to be here and skate at my first Grand Prix this season," Lee, the 2024 U.S. silver medalist, said. "I know there's not a lot of pressure on me compared to other skaters this year, so my goal is to skate the best I can, skate free. I thought [the event] was a lot bigger than I expected. I said earlier it kind of felt like a nationals vibe."

Jason Brown left Herb Brooks Arena feeling optimistic after his free skate to "Say Something (A Great Big World) and Mahogany Session" by Jacob Banks.
The two-time Olympian finished third in the segment with a score of 156.90, which moved him from fifth after the short program to fourth with an overall score of 239.59.

"I'm proud of my grit; I'm proud of the tenacity of the program," Brown said. "It's never great when it starts strong and fizzles a bit. That said, I never gave up, kept pushing through and it was another opportunity to really get the pacing of the program, understand it, get it out in a different venue, in a bigger rink. I'm looking to give it another go next week."

Brown, known as one of the world's most artistic skaters, earned the event's highest program components score at 86.54. He received Level 4s for each of his three spins. His triple flip-double Axel-double Axel sequence in the second half of the routine generated a program-high 14.45 points.

Brown will compete next weekend at the final Grand Prix Series event in Finland.

Liam Kapeikis overcame a slow start to place ninth in the free skate with a score of 140.01 and ninth overall with 214.29 points.

"I think today was a little bit of a fight, obviously starting off the day with a very strange mistake on the triple flip. But I was able to ground myself, refocus and the rest of the program went OK. I would have loved to have done the second triple Axel today, but that is a bit of a work in progress."

Kapeikis, skating to music from the Dragon Heart soundtrack, landed an array of triple jumps, including three in combination. After the initial miscue on the opening triple flip, all but one of his subsequent elements received positive GOEs. His triple Lutz-double Axel-double Axel sequence earned a program-high 14.76 points. He received Level 4s for two spins.

Chan and Akira Howe finished strong with the third-best free skate score of the pairs event.

The Boston based team posted 118.51 points for their free skate and ended with overall score of 180.02. They competed last weekend at NHK Trophy in Japan, where they placed sixth.

"We're coming off a little bit of jet lag from our first Grand Prix in Japan," Akira Howe said. "Of course, we didn't get the scores we wanted or thought we would get, but we felt so good out there. At the end of the day, competition or not, the best thing that you can do when you are skating for a crowd is just feel good and we felt that way."

Performing to "Unchained Melody" from the musical Ghost, Chan and Howe started well by landing a triple Salchow-double Axel sequence followed moments later by a Level 4 triple twist. Two of their lifts received Level 4s, including their reverse lasso lift that was awarded 8.70 points.

"[When the program ended], it was a sigh of relief and just grateful for what we did out there," Chan said. "We had a lot of small victories, so happy we could take all of those."

Akira Howe, who had nursed a shoulder injury for multiple seasons, said he told Chan the morning of the free skate that, "it's crazy how far we've come with my shoulder. Back-to-back [Grand Prixs] and all of those hours of travel is not easy on the body. So, I'm super grateful that we could come out and skate as well as we did. I just want to keep going and get better."

Their teammates in Lake Placid, Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez, and Olivia Flores and Luke Wang, finished seventh and eighth overall respectively, with scores of 163.26 and 161.44.

Plazas and Fernandez performed their free skate to music from Mufasa and The Lion King, finishing sixth in the segment with a score of 106.41.

"I'm just glad to be able to go out there [after a disappointing short program]," Plazas said. "I've been crying a lot. We felt defeated after yesterday, so just the fact that we were good to go out there was enough. It wasn't perfect but we had a good throw flip, so that's a win."

They received Level 4s for two lifts and a spin.

Flores and Wang set a new personal international-best free skate score of 105.61 with their routine to music from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

"It's been quite a chaotic week," Flores said. "To go out there and perform how we did today feels like quite the accomplishment and one to be proud of. It's our first Grand Prix and that in itself is an accomplishment. Yesterday, I got three stitches and still skated, but we have such a great support team for the U.S. and we were able to put out a good skate."

Program highlights included two successful throws and a Level 4 combination spin.

For full results from 2025 Saatva Skate America, visit the Grand Prix Series Competition Central on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.