Halverson, Mroz Sit 1-2 after Junior Men's Short Program
By Mickey Brown
Their styles couldn’t be more different. Eliot Halverson is all fluid grace and eye-popping flexibility, while Brandon Mroz’s power and speed are something to behold.
Sound like another pair of elite U.S. men?
The parallels between Halverson and Mroz, and Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek are striking, and the latter two will soon have to content with the former two, who stand in first and second, respectively, after the junior men’s short program at the 2007 State Farm U.S. Championships in Spokane, Wash. The event took place Wednesday afternoon at the Spokane Convention Center, the final one to be held at that venue before the action switches full time to Spokane Arena.
Halverson’s score of 65.12 was a personal best by more than five points. His previous high of 59.91 was set at his Junior Grand Prix event in Hungary in the fall.
Halverson (St. Paul FSC) and Mroz (Broadmoor SC) faced off in the novice division a year ago at this event in St. Louis, with Halverson moving up from third place after the short program to overtake Mroz and win the title. That was Halverson’s second U.S. title, as he also captured the intermediate crown in 2004.
Friday morning, at the junior men’s free skate, he’ll go for No. 3.
“Coming in, I knew I had a difficult task ahead of me. I’ve been competing against a lot of these guys for a long time, and a lot of them are very talented,” Halverson said. “To be at the top feels really good.”
Halverson, who began skating in 1998 after watching the World Championships in his (almost) hometown of Minneapolis, Minn. (he lives in St. Paul), skated to the slow, soft “Hana’s Eyes” by Maksim Mrvica, a piece that is perfectly suited to his elegant style. His flexibility was on full display, as he was the only person in the competition to perform a Biellmann, which he did right before his triple Lutz-triple toe combination.
“(The Biellmann) makes the triple Lutz better,” Halverson said. “It relaxes me.”
Except for a shaky landing on his triple flip, Mroz skated clean, earning him 61.76 points for his effort.
“(The program) turned out strong. It gradually got better, but there were a few flaws,” Mroz said. “I could have attacked it better, especially that flip.”
Mroz’s length and expressiveness is strikingly similar to that of the two-time World bronze medalist. The sweeping arm swings and assertive footwork he showed off while skating to Nino Rota’s “Improviso” made the resemblance all the more glaring.
The skater in third is a mild surprise. Douglas Razzano (Coyotes SC of Arizona) followed up a fourth-place finish at the 2005 U.S. Championships with a 12th last year. That came around the time his parents were going through a divorce, which he said affected his mental state.
But he looked focused Wednesday, landing all of his jumps cleanly in his program set to Peter Gabriel’s “The Feeling Begins,” a song with a Middle Eastern flavor. He finished with 58.31 points, .04 more than Curran Oi (SC of Boston).
Razzano admitted he’s not much of a fan of the short program, but this was one of his better ones, except for one aspect.
“I’m surprised I got level twos on my footwork because I was slipping all over the place,” he said. |