Liu makes U.S. skating team

Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc laid down a dazzling pairs program that Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson were unable to match, giving them the title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville — and almost certainly one of the two spots at next month’s Olympics.

Cain-Gribble and LeDuc led Calalang and Johnson by two points after their short program, and the 2019 champions nailed every element from an opening triple twist to an incredible finishing death spiral to finish with 225.23 points.

That put them well ahead of Calalang and Johnson, who couldn’t overcome three mistakes in the first half of their program to catch up. They finished in second place with 209.87 points with Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov in third.

Unlike the other disciplines at the Beijing Games, the Americans only qualified two spots in pairs. One of them is expected to go to Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier, who are petitioning for a spot after the favorites were forced to withdraw from the national championships when he tested positive for the coronavirus earlier in the week. Alysa Liu joined U.S. champion Mariah Bell and runner-up Karen Chen of Fremont on the American figure skating team for the Beijing Olympics, even though she was forced to withdraw from nationals after a positive coronavirus test. The 16-year-old Liu, of Richmond, petitioned for a spot on the Olympic team, and the selection committee chose Liu based on her overall body of work. Clearly back on his game, Nathan Chen set a short program record at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. With a performance full of superb footwork and spins — there were two massive quads in it, too — Chen sent a message to his competitors, here and abroad. His 115.39 points beat the nationals mark of 114.13 he set in 2020. Palo Alto’s Vincent Zhou, Chen’s main competition in the U.S. field, was excellent, nailing the same quad lutz-triple toe loop that Chen did for a score of 112.78 — also a personal best.

Skiing: Sweden’s Sara Hector dominated a women’s World Cup giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, and passed Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin atop the discipline standings. Hector posted the fastest time in both runs as she extended her first-run lead to a huge 0.96 of a second over the runner-up, former French world champion Tessa Worley. Shiffrin improved from 14th after the opening run to seventh, 2.05 seconds behind Hector, who now leads the American by 46 points in the GS season standings.

College football: Hunter Luepke ran for three touchdowns in the first half and North Dakota State won its ninth FCS national championship in 11 seasons with a 38-10 win over Montana State in Frisco, Texas. The Bison (14-1) are 9-0 when making the trip from Fargo to Frisco for the final Football Championship Subdivision game. The Bobcats (12-3) lost standout freshman quarterback Tommy Mellott to an ankle injury on the opening drive.

Speedskating: Brittany Bowe beat Mia Manganello Kilburg in the women’s 1,500 meters and Joey Mantia took the men’s event over Emery Lehman at the U.S. speedskating trials in Milwaukee. All made the Olympic team.