Cain-Gribble and LeDuc take pairs lead
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ashley CainGribble and Timothy LeDuc upstaged a brilliant performance by Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson on Thursday to take the lead after the pairs short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Cain-Gribble and LeDuc, skating last among the eight teams at Bridgestone Arena, were near-flawless in a program set to music from the 2018 biographical drama film “The White Crow.” It was highlighted by a soaring triple loop and piled up 79.39 points, a score that would have been third best in the world this season.
More importantly, it put the 2019 national champions ahead of Calalang and Johnson heading into the free skate at what amounts to the U.S. trials for the Beijing Olympics next month.
“We’re thrilled. It was exactly the way we wanted to skate,” Cain-Gribble said with a bright smile, “and we knew we had to be perfect with the program that went before, but we didn’t focus on that too much.”
Calalang and Johnson opened with a brilliant side-by-side triple salchow that has caused them problems in the past, and the reigning silver medalists finished with a tremendous lift that left them with 77.48 points.
Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov made a couple of mistakes and were in third place with 68.11 points.
The competition continued later Thursday with the women’s short program.
The U.S. has two pairs spots for the Beijing Games, and one of those could go to defending U.S. champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who were forced to withdraw Wednesday night following his positive COVID-19 test.
Knierim and Frazier plan to petition U.S. Figure Skating for one of the spots based on their exemplary scope of work. If they are successful, that would leave just one spot up for grabs; the pairs free skate takes place Saturday night.
If there’s indeed one spot left for the taking, Cain-Gribble and LeDuc gave themselves the inside track.