Locals shine in nationals
Middle schoolers Wang, Stephens place 5th and 7th
The hometown girls came through Saturday night.
Bay Area middle schoolers Kate Wang and Ava Stephens displayed uncharacteristic poise in rebounding in the intermediate women’s division at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose.
Wang, a 4-foot-4 San Francisco seventh-grader, just missed a medal, finishing fifth with a program that included five triple jumps.
Stephens, a San Jose eighth-grader, rallied with a big-time free skate to jump from 11th place to seventh overall while Olympian Polina Edmunds watched at Solar4America Ice.
“Ava is our girl from San Jose,” said Edmunds, who will compete in the senior nationals at SAP Center starting Wednesday. “I train with her every day.”
Stephens, 13, was the only intermediate skater without a triple jump in her program.
But she landed three consecutive double combination jumps at the end to complete a satisfying finish to the season.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” her coach Rudy Galindo said. “It was beautiful. It was magical.”
The performance was all the more impressive considering Stephens hurt a knee when falling Friday night in the short program. She didn’t let the swelling bother her Saturday.
“It was nice to end my last time skating the program with a clean skate,” Stephens said of the “Black Swan.”
Wang and Stephens will advance to the novice level next year. For Stephens, it means learning triple jumps.
Wang, 12, plans to push the limit by mastering triple-triple combinations. She has been skating since age 3, starting at the nowclosed Belmont ice rink. Wang currently trains at Yerba Buena Ice and Bowling Center in downtown San Francisco.
Her coach Jeff Crandell was ecstatic how Wang recovered from a disappointing short program when she struggled with some jumps to open in seventh place.
Wang scored 82.98 points Saturday for the second-highest mark in the free skate. She finished with a total of 123.15 points.
Indi Cha of Revere, Massachusetts, offered a lively performance to “La La Land” to win the competition with 131.73 points.
Wang said the performance will motivate her for next season. But she’s already dedicated to skating, having quit ballet and swimming to focus on the sport.
In the men’s intermediate competition, Ian Ramsey of Portola Valley struggled with jumps to finish last in an event won by Maxim Zharkov of Arlington, Texas.
Ramsey, a Woodside High School junior, learned that he has “a long ways go” after qualifying for his first U.S. championships.
But it has motivated him to continue pursuing it with coach Charlie Tickner, the 1978 world champion from Lafayette.
Zoe Larson and Nick Hubbart of Florida won the intermediate pairs by edging Kate Fleming and Jedidiah Isbell of Boston.