Jeremy Abbott is the senior men's champion at the 2009 U.S. Figure Skating Championships! What a moment for him. He didn't have the best free skate of his life, but with Evan Lysacek's mistakes during his program and Jeremy's lead going into the free skate, it was good enough to clinch his first U.S. Championship. Jeremy was fourth in 2007 and 2008 and who knows if the Evan-Johnny era is coming to an end, or just taking a breather. (Either Evan or Johnny has won the U.S. title the last five years, so this is quite an achievement.)
Evan took the bronze with a respectable skate but as NBC commentator Scott Hamilton noted, quite accurately, he was fighting for everything, and nothing was "flowing naturally." Not so for silver medalist Brandon Mroz, the 18-year-old making his senior debut here. I thought Brandon had the most "free" of the free skates and he looked ecstatic after the scores came up.
So who will be on the World team to compete in Los Angeles in March? There are only three spots for the men and Johnny will appeal to U.S. Figure Skating to grant him a spot and with good reason -- he won bronze at last year's Worlds and this season, he has medaled at Skate America, NHK Trophy and the Grand Prix Final. Plus, he is one of the top skaters in the country and has been battling a serious illness the last few months. NBC commentator Sandra Bezic noted that had he withdrawn from the competition from the beginning due to recovering from his illness, he most certainly would be granted a spot on the World team. Stay tuned, it should be interesting.
Complete results for the senior men are below. Note: SP=Short Program and FS=Free Skate
Rank |
Name |
SP |
FS |
Points |
1 |
Jeremy Abbott / Broadmoor SC |
86.40 |
155.49 |
241.89 |
2 |
Brandon Mroz / Broadmoor SC |
74.88 |
154.82 |
229.70 |
3 |
Evan Lysacek / DuPage FSC |
83.59 |
145.51 |
229.10 |
4 |
Ryan Bradley / Broadmoor SC |
74.05 |
147.35 |
221.40 |
5 |
Johnny Weir / The SC of New York |
70.76 |
133.23 |
203.99 |
6 |
Curran Oi / The Skating Club of Boston |
72.76 |
121.27 |
194.03 |
7 |
Adam Rippon / The SC of New York |
62.22 |
131.54 |
193.76 |
8 |
Parker Pennington / Winterhurst FSC |
76.17 |
116.31 |
192.48 |
9 |
Stephen Carriere / The Skating Club of Boston |
69.36 |
115.95 |
185.31 |
10 |
Tommy Steenberg / SC of Northern Virginia |
59.77 |
125.22 |
184.99 |
11 |
Dennis Phan / All Year FSC |
69.11 |
114.14 |
183.25 |
12 |
Shaun Rogers / U. of Delaware FSC |
64.13 |
111.59 |
175.72 |
13 |
Eliot Halverson / Ann Arbor FSC |
51.09 |
120.05 |
171.14 |
14 |
Douglas Razzano / Coyotes SC of Arizona |
57.00 |
107.14 |
164.14 |
15 |
William Brewster / Detroit SC |
60.23 |
92.57 |
152.80 |
16 |
Jonathan Cassar / Detroit SC |
55.72 |
95.38 |
151.10 |
17 |
Jason Wong / The Skating Club of Boston |
63.40 |
77.33 |
140.73 |
W/D |
Nicholas LaRoche / All Year FSC |
58.01 |
||
W/D |
Scott Smith / Salt Lake Figure Skating |
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