Tanovich and Chau in Driver's Seat in Novice Pairs
By Michelle Wojdyla
Sporting matching black pants and NASCAR-themed tops, Tracy Tanovich and Michael Chau (Southwest Florida FSC) brought the house down in the novice pairs short program Sunday afternoon at the 2007 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Earning the highest technical elements and program components scores en route to a score of 45.47, the 2006 U.S. novice bronze medalists are a step closer to grabbing the top step of the podium.
“It was really exciting to have the crowd behind us,” the 16-year-old Chau said. “It’s definitely motivating. It’s great. Lots of fun. There was a nice uproar at the end.”
Despite their young ages, Chau and his 10-year-old partner were prepared for anything — even a standing room-only crowd.
“It’s good to practice distractions,” Chau said. “It helps me to keep it going.”
The uproar came at the end of a program packed with difficult elements, all of which garnered level threes and fours. Their only major error came when Tanovich took a tumble on the side-by-side double flips.
“I think I was just a little bit nervous about my jump, but other than that, it was fine,” Tanovich said. “I think if I (fall) then I have to make the rest better. I have to keep going and just ignore that.”
“We’re very happy with the component (scores),” Chau said. “We were going for all level fours obviously, because it’s more points. We missed out on a few; it might have been short rev(olution) stuff. Overall, things went pretty well.”
Back for their second year at the U.S. Championships as novices, the duo, which trains under Kerry Leitch, made an effort to step up their skills this season. Chau said they trained “harder elements, harder lifts. Just skating faster in general. Really improve overall in our abilities. I think we’ve accomplished that. We’ve been skating really well, so we’re very pleased.”
“I like this sport, and I feel if I like it, I should try my hardest, and then I do,” Tanovich said.
Standing in second with 42.74 points are 12-year-old Jaylyn Kelly and 23-year-old Gabe Woodruff (Lansing SC/Detroit SC). After placing eighth last year in St. Louis, the team is poised to move into the medals in Spokane.
“We skated great! That’s probably the best short we’ve ever done,” Woodruff said. “I think the audience got involved and really helped us out. If you feel like you’re being enjoyed, it makes you want to present even more. I heard them on every element. I could really hear the reaction and it helps so much.”
Skating to a modern arrangement of Mozart, the couple, which is trained by 2006 Olympian Aaron Parchem, sought to find that balance in their performance.
“We’re definitely a power team,” Woodruff said. “We have a size advantage. We’re looking to incorporate the grace with the power.”
Parchem had words of wisdom for his team before it took the ice.
“He just said to make sure I remember everything we worked on and to show it,” Kelly said.
“We had two small errors, but I think we made it up in the component marks,” Woodruff said. “Our big tricks helped us, too.”
The pairs event got underway with a bang as Minna Lee and Taylor Toth (Univ. of Delaware FSC/Pittsburgh FSC) drew first to skate and wound up less than a point out of second place with a score of 42.03.
“The short program, it was fun!” gushed Toth. “I felt like we started it off really well. Mr. (Ron) Ludington, one of our coaches, was like, ‘You guys are the first pairs team in 2007 to compete and skate a clean program. That’s kind of cool!’ Only he would think of something like that.”
The duo, which is in its first season together, handles the media like pros. When one reporter asked how they performed, Toth was happy to provide a summary: “It was ALL highlights! Since you missed it, I’m going to tell you how it went – it was really amazing. We were the crowd favorite. They were speechless. I think we left everyone in awe.”
“We had a nice lift today,” Lee added. “I felt like all of our elements felt really solid and (like) the way we do it in practice.”
With very few negative GOEs on their seven elements, the program seemed to fly.
“It’s really cool that (the Convention Center) is set up like this because we can sell it all out,” Toth said. “It’s exciting to skate with all the stands filled.”
The novice pairs event concludes Monday at the Spokane Arena. |