USFS International Selection Pool (ISP) Points Challenge

[Dogo]

Thanks for posting the scores!!
Yess, Calalang and Johnson are first in the scoreboard I will have to watch them later during the day, still I'm so hyped for them!

 

[haribobo]

Dance FD Score
1. Hubbell/Donohue 124.37
2. Hawayek/Baker 115.13
3. Carreira/Ponomarenko 114.13
4. Green/Parsons 103.76
5. Cesanek/Yehorov 101.74
6. McNamara/Spiridonov 90.79
7. Pate/Bye 87.92

Pairs FS Score
1. Calalang/Johnson 139.25
2. Knierim/Frazier 129.60
3. Cain-Gribble/Leduc 120.34
4. Kayne/O'Shea 120.00
5. Lu/Mitrofanov 116.61
6. Serafini/Tran 109.22
7. McBeath/Bartholomay 101.05
8. Chan/Howe 94.95
9. Finster/Nagy 81.13

 

[Bluediamonds09]

I can’t believe the senior ladies sp is already judged and scores are out, but video is not available on that US fan zone site.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

I can’t believe the senior ladies sp is already judged and scores are out, but video is not available on that US fan zone site.

? The video of the ladies SPs have been out for many hours

 

[haribobo]

All the video links I posted earlier have now been taken down, hopefully restored soon?

 

[Bluediamonds09]

? The video of the ladies SPs have been out for many hours

Well it’s not there now. All the videos from the fan zone site are from last month.

 

[natsulian]

Mariah Bell - 2A, 3F+3T<, 3Lz
Bradie Tennell - 2A, 3Lz+3T<, 3F<
Alysa Liu - 2A, 3Lz, 3F+3T(ur?)

Alysa's jumps did not look under-rotated to me, just a bit squirrelly like they've always been. Once she gets back into full training mode and adds in the 3As and maybe a quad, I'm certain her scores will rise exponentially. It's too early in the season to tell if Mariah's consistency with her 3-3 has gone awry but hopefully with more training time she can put out two clean programs by Nationals. As for Bradie, I hope she really cleans everything up. I don't like either of her programs but adore her as a skater and I truly wish her the best with the changes she has been experiencing. All in all, in light of our current global situation and the training time these skaters have had, I absolutely APPLAUD every one of them.

P.S. - Our pairs teams look STRONG.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

Well it’s not there now. All the videos from the fan zone site are from last month.

Seems like they took them down. They were there before

 

[TontoK]

I did get to watch (most) the Senior Pairs SP before they took it down.

C/J and K/F really look like they are separating themselves nicely from the rest of the pack. The most obvious difference between their two performances is that Alexa stepped out of the throw. Otherwise. fairly close. I am surprised the Alexa and Brandon had such good sync on the spins. Very nice unison, one of the tops in the field, and I would have thought that would only come with a longer partnership.

Ashley and Tim skated pretty clean, no huge problems on elements, and they were still outscored handily, even though K/F had the error on the throw. It was NOT a "wazrobbed" situation. The other two pairs were just more in command. They looked bigger.

I had really high hopes for this pair, but as time goes by, I think they're weaker, not stronger. The twist was low, low, low. Tim has got to get stronger. I'm sure that Frazier and Johnson are hitting the weights, and the difference between those guys and him is striking.

 

[haribobo]

Top 4 Scores (besides top 5 from last year's Nationals) - these 4 are now qualified for 2021 Nationals

Men- Camden Pulkinen 212, Alexei Krasnozhon 211, Jimmy Ma 210, Joseph Kang 203
Ladies- Audrey Shin 171, Starr Andrews 162, Pooja Kalyan 157, Lindsay Thorngren 155
Pairs- Knierim/Frazier, Lu/Mitrofanov, Serafini/Tran, McBeath/Bartholomay
Dance- Cesanek/Yehorov, McNamara/Spiridonov, Pate/Bye

Results and videos are up now-

International Selection Pool (ISP) Points Challenge Competition Central

International Selection Pool (ISP) Points Challenge Competition Central

usfigureskatingfanzone.com

 

[MintGreen]

I didn't see Vincent and Andrew in the men's final results. Did they choose not to participate in the challenge? Does the challenge serve as a qualification process for the Nationals?

 

[Ella5555]

I didn't see Vincent and Andrew in the men's final results. Did they choose not to participate in the challenge? Does the challenge serve as a qualification process for the Nationals?

In the TeamUSA article, Vincent said that there was no way he was passing it up, so I too wonder what happened.

 

[readernick]

I didn't see Vincent and Andrew in the men's final results. Did they choose not to participate in the challenge? Does the challenge serve as a qualification process for the Nationals?

I am not sure about Vincent. I think something is going on with Andrew. He hasn't participated in anything since the Peggy Fleming Trophy where he did very well. I think he might be injured.

 

[sheetz]

Vincent talked about competing in the ISP Challenge in a very recent interview. He did say he was dealing with some issues, however.

Vincent Zhou Plays . . . ðTalk about new costume & ISP challengeðon Sept30th.

Mr. Vincent Zhou ã®Sept30th.ã®ã¤ã³ã¿ãã¥ã¼æç²ã§ããThis is an excerpt from the interview on Sept30th..Masha Talk Live:https://youtu.be/7z1Ybai9hcI#Vincentzhou, #ã´ã£ã³ã»ã³ãã¸ã§...

youtu.be

Torgashev appeared in Sean Rabbitt's Instagram story a few days ago, but otherwise no other info on him.

 

[rain]

Just watched the rhythm dances. The two biggies of course were the debut of Hawayek and Baker and Hubbell and Donahue. But before I get into the skating, I have to comment on the big differences in video and sound quality. For the above mentioned two teams the video was wonderfully sharp, but the sound quality was abysmal. I'm frankly shocked about that. Even I, in a little beginner video making course, learned first and number one that sound quality is king. People will forgive shaky camera work and out of focus, but if the sound is poor, they're gone. That big rinks don't seem to understand this most basic of basics is a head-scratcher.

I continue to love H/B skating to the Bee Gees. I didn't think it was their most stellar performance to this music, but they looked super in shape and great here.

Anything is an improvement over the Marilyn Monroe 'Daddy' program from last season, and I think Burlesque is a good soundtrack for them, but this program still looked really, really new. At times it almost looked like they were confused as to what they were supposed to be doing with their arms, like they couldn't remember the choreography. But I think they have something they can work with here, even if it doesn't have any 'wow' moments as of yet.

 

[Seren]

I did get to watch (most) the Senior Pairs SP before they took it down.

C/J and K/F really look like they are separating themselves nicely from the rest of the pack. The most obvious difference between their two performances is that Alexa stepped out of the throw. Otherwise. fairly close. I am surprised the Alexa and Brandon had such good sync on the spins. Very nice unison, one of the tops in the field, and I would have thought that would only come with a longer partnership.

Ashley and Tim skated pretty clean, no huge problems on elements, and they were still outscored handily, even though K/F had the error on the throw. It was NOT a "wazrobbed" situation. The other two pairs were just more in command. They looked bigger.

I had really high hopes for this pair, but as time goes by, I think they're weaker, not stronger. The twist was low, low, low. Tim has got to get stronger. I'm sure that Frazier and Johnson are hitting the weights, and the difference between those guys and him is striking.

If you follow Tim on Instagram he posts a fair amount of gym videos on his stories- he is working hard. Some of the things he does are really impressive!

 

[rain]

OK, I'm very intrigued by Hawayek and Baker's new FD. The one foot circular footwork sequence at the start is divine, and beautifully shows off their skating skills. I also like the strange, haunting, spare cover/remix they're using. It's interesting. The lifts looked pretty effortless already, and it's still early in the season. On the whole this looked really good out of the gate.

As for H/D, this too is much better than their free dances of the last two years. I like the mixing of the different versions of Hallelujah to give it some variation. But I just don't feel like it's all that inspiring choreographically (yet, at least). I'm have trouble remembering any of the steps between the big elements, or within the footwork sequences for example, even though it was skated very well. That's always my barometer of a really special program versus a good one. On the plus side, the lifts look a lot better than last season as well.

 

[skylark]

OK, I'm very intrigued by Hawayek and Baker's new FD. The one foot circular footwork sequence at the start is divine, and beautifully shows off their skating skills. I also like the strange, haunting, spare cover/remix they're using. It's interesting. The lifts looked pretty effortless already, and it's still early in the season. On the whole this looked really good out of the gate.

As for H/D, this too is much better than their free dances of the last two years. I like the mixing of the different versions of Hallelujah to give it some variation. But I just don't feel like it's all that inspiring choreographically (yet, at least). I'm have trouble remembering any of the steps between the big elements, or within the footwork sequences for example, even though it was skated very well. That's always my barometer of a really special program versus a good one. On the plus side, the lifts look a lot better than last season as well.

On a podcast Hawayek & Baker did recently, Jean-Luc said he and Kaitlyn got to "play" on the ice in NY before they went back to Gadbois. He said "we're both creative people" ... and they really enjoyed that 6-week interlude to create new moves. Which Marie-France was thrilled with, when they showed her. I'm pretty sure the "play" (aka "work") they did is part of the new FD.

ETA: here's the link to the podcast, a new series called "Beyond the Rink." https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca...lin-hawayek-jean/id1529457789?i=1000491224179

 

[skylark]

I did get to watch (most) the Senior Pairs SP before they took it down.

C/J and K/F really look like they are separating themselves nicely from the rest of the pack. The most obvious difference between their two performances is that Alexa stepped out of the throw. Otherwise. fairly close. I am surprised the Alexa and Brandon had such good sync on the spins. Very nice unison, one of the tops in the field, and I would have thought that would only come with a longer partnership.

Ashley and Tim skated pretty clean, no huge problems on elements, and they were still outscored handily, even though K/F had the error on the throw. It was NOT a "wazrobbed" situation. The other two pairs were just more in command. They looked bigger.

I had really high hopes for this pair, but as time goes by, I think they're weaker, not stronger. The twist was low, low, low. Tim has got to get stronger. I'm sure that Frazier and Johnson are hitting the weights, and the difference between those guys and him is striking.

Apparently, Tim was injured during the summer (concussion?), so he and Ashley lost a lot of training time. I expect Tim needs to get his strength back ... as well as the fact that their program content (2 new ones this season) is behind the other top pairs because of the lost training time.

I watched all the pairs videos after I read your post, and I disagree with a couple of your points. Ashley and Tim showed plenty of command ... which is one of their usual strengths IMO ... in the SP. My impression is that they're still working to get everything put together in the FS; there are a lot of new/different moves. Once they get their usual musical accents and drama in the program, I think it will be dramatically better. I think the lifts will improve as Tim gets stronger, and the lifts will help bring the program to a (hopefully) stunning conclusion. Just my two cents. I love Alexa and Brandon together, and I love Jessica and Brian together, stronger, more confident this year. Those 2 pairs are getting plenty of love, so I chose to focus my comments on Ashley and Tim. I found Tarah and Danny's new FS to be quite watchable, too. Fun and playful at the beginning.

 

[TontoK]

^^ Thanks for the feedback, @skylark

You've made a valid point about Tim's injury. Someone else mentioned his strength training on another post... and maybe the injury is why it's not translating to the ice this season. At least not yet.

I have to disagree on the command aspect though. I thought some of the movement was slow and labored. I'm thinking of a couple of lift exits that looked like they were practically made at a standstill. Of course, all these lift exits look so much more complicated than in years past, so that may just be a function of mileage. One thing is for certain, US Pairs are interesting again.