Reigning World champions Alysa Liu and Madison Chock and Evan Bates emerged with titles on Day 3 of 2025 Saatva Skate America in Lake Placid, New York.
Winning gold medals inside historic 1980 Herb Brooks Arena sewed up berths for them in next month's ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2025 in Nagoya, Japan.
Photo credit Melanie Heaney/U.S. Figure Skating
Chock and Bates have now won Skate America five times, tying Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto for the most ice dance titles at Skate America.
Meanwhile, Liu clinched her first Grand Prix gold medal and became the first U.S. woman to secure the Skate America title at a fully international Skate America since Ashley Wagner in 2016.
Liu, second by less than a point after the short program, seized the moment in the free skate with her stunning performance to "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer.
The 2022 Olympian posted a season-best free skate score of 140.54 and an overall total of 214.27 points to claim her second Grand Prix medal. She won the event by 3.31 points.
Liu received Level 4s for her three spins and step sequence and earned a program-high 12.73 points for her triple Lutz-double Axel-double toe loop sequence in the second half of the program. She also posted the top program components score of 69.32. Liu was called for two underrotated jumps.
"It does mean a lot that I am able to be at such a big competition like the Grand Prix in general," Liu said. "Whether I'm on the podium or not, I'm glad I was able to take that stage and perform. Although I do wish I performed a little bit better. There are a few things I would elevate, but I'm glad that my devotion to creation has led me to this point."
Liu looks forward, she said, to competing at the Grand Prix Final.
"One good thing about making so many mistakes in a program is that I'm so motivated to not make any more mistakes in my next program," she said. "I am going to work a lot harder on all of my jumps and running my programs. I felt good at this competition and I'm excited to showcase my programs at the Final."
Starr Andrews delivered a memorable program and personal record free skate and overall scores.
The California native included her vocals to "The Fantasy of Happiness" and "Turning Page." She posted a 130.90 free skate score and produced an overall total of 195.28 points.
"I'm just happy that I could go out and show what I've been practicing," Andrews said. "I've been practicing so hard. I've actually been trying something different this year, going up to Colorado with my coaches up there. I think that helped with my stamina here. … Today I really let go."
Except for an edge call on her opening triple Lutz, Andrews received all positive grades of execution on her elements. She cleanly landed six triple jumps, three in combination. Her big point-earner was a triple toe loop-double Axel-double Axel sequence worth a program-high 11.94 points. Two spins received Level 4s.
Josephine Lee wrapped up her first-ever Grand Prix event with a free skate score of 93.04 and an overall total of 147.28 for 12th place.
The 2024 U.S. silver medalist performed to "Scheherazade" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
"I feel like my preparation started to pay off," Lee said. "I worked hard leading up to this. I am happy I got to show some things I've been working on. Obviously, I have a lot of room to improve and I'll go home and work even harder."
In ice dance, Chock and Bates, the three-time and reigning World champions, posted the world's top overall score this season of 212.58 en route to their 22nd Grand Prix medal. They won the competition by 15.42 points.
Chock and Bates won their first Grand Prix gold medal in 2014 at Skate America.
"It's so special every time we get to compete on home ice and Skate America is a very near and dear competition to our hearts," Chock said. "We've been doing it for many years and [I've] always admired it my entire career. It's an honor to compete here in this historic venue that's been beautifully remodeled, so we enjoyed our whole week here in Lake Placid."
The Montreal-based duo performed a stunning routine to "Paint It Black" by Ramin Djawadi. Their chemistry and unison shown brightly as they received Level 4s for their combination lift, synchronized twizzles, rotational lift and dance spin. Their lift was the highest-scoring element of the competition at 14.88 points.
The U.S. has now won gold 16 out of the last 17 years at Skate America.
Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko finished fourth in the segment with a score of 113.29. They placed fifth overall with 186.03 points.
The two-time and reigning U.S. silver medalists performed to music from the "Notre-Dame de Paris" soundtrack.
They earned Level 4 scores for their opening straight line lift, synchronized twizzles and dance spin.
"I think both performances were stronger than Skate Canada," Carreira said. "The scores didn't reflect that, but they were skated better. There are a lot of technical points that we left on the table for both programs, so obviously we have a lot to work on."
"We are happy with the skates," Ponomarenko added. "They reflect exactly what we do in practice. We have a lot of room to grow. We have a lot of time now until nationals and we are going to grow and work to get the best possible results at nationals."
Carreira and Ponomarenko finished fourth earlier this Grand Prix season at Skate Canada International and earned the silver medal at Nebelhorn Trophy.
Oona Brown and Gage Brown posted a free dance score of 111.86 — sixth in the segment — and an overall total of 182.11 points to finish sixth overall.
The siblings, fifth at the 2025 U.S. Championships, skated to music from The Godfather. They once again incorporated some unique moves into their routine.
"[We've had] a lot of cool tricks that we've put in this program; I would say more so than previous seasons, especially with what you saw in the choreo step, that flip that we performed. That's been under wraps for quite a bit. We started working on it around August. Just a lot of ice off stuff. Just putting it on the ice was pretty difficult."
"We had to keep it a secret so we really didn't practice it all week," Oona Brown added. "We had to get it right that one time."
The team also debuted headstands in their rhythm dance earlier this season.
In Lake Placid, they earned Level 4s for their curve, rotational and straight line lifts, and their dance spin.
The Browns said these unique moves have ignited a positive reaction from the audiences.
The New York natives will compete next weekend at Finlandia Trophy.
For full results from 2025 Saatva Skate America, visit the Grand Prix Series Competition Central on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.
