Teens compete for pairs national title
Anastasia Lestina and Benjamin McLemore noticed a glitch in their skating routine. The timing was slightly off on their combination spin.
Anastasia asked if, in addition to counting to three on the way down, Benjamin could also count on the way up so she could hear, and he agreed without protest. Only after a question from their coach, Crystal Mekonis, did he admit that he was counting, but his partner couldn’t hear. “I’ll count louder,” he said.
“See, that’s what’s so good about them,” Mekonis explained. “They communicate, they talk to each other, they work things out. They don’t get upset with each other. It’s like, ‘OK, do this,’ ‘all right, I need this.’ And that’s really good in pairs.”
Lestina, 16, of Franklin Park, and McLemore, 18, of McCandless, will compete Monday and Tuesday at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships in Detroit in the novice pairs competition. They previously competed at nationals in 2018 and 2015, but this is their first season competing at the novice level, which is above intermediate but below junior and championship levels. Last year, they placed fifth at the intermediate level.
“Pairs starts at pre-juvenile. It goes pre-juvenile, juvenile, intermediate, novice, junior, senior,” Mekonis said. “There are elements that they can perform. What you do for the season prior to competing, you go out and you take a test in front of a panel of judges with U.S. Figure Skating. You either pass your test or you don’t pass your test and have to retry it. [Lestina and McLemore] always passed. And so usually
kids spend about two years in a level and move up from there.”
The pair met at Montessori Children’s Community in Sewickley, when they took the bus together as children, starting when Lestina was 6 and in first grade, and McLemore was 8 and in second grade. They’ve been skating together for nearly 10 years, with Mekonis as their coach for their entire careers.
“My older sister went to a birthday party and couldn’t skate, so she decided she was going to learn how to skate,” Lestina said. “And she started skating and I, when I was younger, did everything she did, so I started skating, and I got him into it.”
“She took me to skating one time and I thought it was a lot of fun and decided I’ll start taking lessons,” McLemore said. “And I just started taking lessons and skating with her sort of for fun, and then it sort of evolved from there.”
Both are currently homeschooled; Lestina for the past 10 years and McLemore for high school after attending Montessori Children’s Community.
McLemore and Lestina are one of just 12 novice pairs to qualify for the U.S. Figure Skating competition. They will compete against regional champions and national medalists.
“You’re competing against ...” McLemore started, “Pretty much the best of the best,” Lestina finished. “You’re competing against other people who are really good. And it’s awesome to see.”
Their journey was nearly derailed in December, when McLemore sustained a fractured iliac crest.
“We were driving, and we went into an intersection and were hit from the side,” McLemore said. “And I was behind the door that was smashed in. So I was, like pushed in, smashed against cup holders, because the cup holders were folded down, and the cup holders broke my hip.”
McLemore never doubted that he’d heal in time to compete. He was not cleared for jumps or lifts until the Monday before the competition, leaving just a week for full practices. Mekonis, who qualified for nationals when she was younger but couldn’t compete due to an ankle injury, is confident they’ll be ready.
They practice early mornings at Robert Morris University Island Sports Center, which can prove challenging. As they skate, they need to weave through about 20 other skaters on the ice, and also ignore the constantly changing music.
“You get used to it,” Lestina said.
McLemore and Lestina will compete Monday and Tuesday in Detroit, in the same event as Olympic medalists including Bradie Tennell and Nathan Chen, although not quite overlapping. The championship-level events are held at Little Caesers Arena, 20 miles away from the novice events at Detroit Skating Club, and they compete on separate days.
But their experience is not just about the competition. Lestina and McLemore are excited for the seminars and classes, which U.S. Figure Skating offers, teaching about how to earn higher scores with better technique and execution practices.
Their goals are to set a personal best and get positive marks for extra points on at least one of the elements. Skating on the national stage gives a different feel for them.
“These are our friends, and we want to try to skate as best as we can, so that we can show off how we’ve improved, and we see how they’ve improved,” Lestina said.
But their competitive career may soon be coming to an end. Mekonis is hoping to add a triple to their routine soon, but college looms next year for McLemore. Both skaters are home-schooled, but McLemore has been accepted to Pitt and is waiting to hear from Stanford.
After a hard set of exercise, the skaters finish their practice right at 8 a.m.
“It’s just tradition to end practice with a bow and a curtsey,” Mekonis explains as the skaters practice the close of their routine. Next week, the bow and curtsey will be in front of judges and an audience.