Mary Beth Marley delivered a kick ass long program at the DuPage Open. She has recently been taking her pairs tests and is officially the new partner of Rockne Brubaker. Mary Beth will compete in both disciplines. The 2009 Novice Silver Medalist is loaded with moxie and speed. She is typically a consistent competitor and is built wonderfully for pairs skating.
Cassie Whitcomb's broken leg turned out to be a 'cracked' leg with a sprain. She is using a bone stimulator and still hopes to compete bars at the selection camp.
Ksenia Makarova won the Moran Memorial with a clean short program and her first ever triple lutz in competition in the long.
Jason Brown's free skate from the JGP Courchevel.
Sui Lu won the AA at Chinese Nationals. Jiang Yuyuan was second and Huang Qiushuang was third.
Videos:
Aliya Mustafina won bars and was second on vault at the Russian Cup. Tatiana Nabieva won vault and was second on bars. Ksenia Semenova was third on bars.
The USA's team for Pan Ams was announced:
Gabrielle Douglas
Brenna Dowell
Sarah Finnegan
McKayla Maroney
Kyla Ross
Sabrina Vega
Florent Amodio performed an exhibition at the JGP Courchevel:
Is the US Pan Am Team just the top age-eligible Juniors in order of finish from Nationals?
ReplyDeleteActually Marley hasn't been so consistent, missing Nationals last year after rough Regional and Sectional skates. Consistency issues aside, she really has potential to be a wonderful ladies skater. If she keeps improving and keeps focused in competition, she will definitely challenge for a medal, if not win the Jr National title. I really enjoy her long program from Dupage and I am impressed that she has a full set of triples now (although she isn't competing the 3S in this video- I'm not sure if that jump is an issue for her but she has competed it before). With a little more stretch and polish, she'll be one of my favorite ladies this season.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing what she can do in pairs. I hope it is a good fit for Brubaker, but it would not surprise me if she is in a "Kristi Yamaguchi" scenario in couple years and needs to pick between singles or pairs. The US pairs field is less deep than ladies, but internationally, I think the ladies competitions are more wide open than pairs.
Good to see that Ksenia Marakova has added the lutz this year.
I'm glad to see Ksenia Semenova is still competing. She's had lots of injuries.
ReplyDeleteNo Katelyn Ohashi?
ReplyDeleteMary Beth Marley has been very good for a while. While she doesn't always win every competition, her name is always near the top. When she missed at sectionals, she just missed. It wasn't a complete bomb. You never see her fall dramatically in the rankings.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Mary Beth has been adding a number of triples to her repertoire since 2009 Novice Nationals. It is not uncommon for a first-year junior to miss Nationals. The more advanced triples are usually very iffy for the first year or so that they are being attempted in competition by a skater.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the Marley-Brubaker team will work. Speaking of work, her lutz sure needs some. But, she's young and has time yet to develop her techniques.
ReplyDeleteWho is going to coach Marley and Brubaker?
ReplyDeleteMarley seems to really be improving. Last season, when she would mess up one jump, it seemed like she would mess up most of the jumps and unravel a bit, so it's a good sign that she could skate so well in this video after the opening fall. Marley just missed Nationals last year, but that was more a testament to her good overall skating... She wasn't doing the harder jumps yet (3F or 3Lz) and was messing up all the easier ones (watch her four fall LP at Regionals as example). She's skating much better now and adding the harder triples. Hopefully adding on all the rigors of pairs won't stunt her gradual progress in singles. What I find weird is why her spiral is so weak when she has such a great Biellman. Maybe it's just a matter of needing more strength in her back.
ReplyDeleteI like Marley's skating, just wish she was a little older. It's going to be a little odd to see Brubaker skating with someone barely 15. Still, it must be a relief for Brubaker to find someone to skate with at this point.
Polina Shelepen looks so much taller this year. Maybe she will improve and her wins will actually be earned once she gets use to her body more. Her jumps so aren't appealing though.
ReplyDeleteReally like Florent...wish he would grow a lil more...just a preference.