No Nightmare for Halverson in Junior Men's Free Skate
by Laura Fawcett
 (1/26/07) - It started with a scream and ended with a bang.
But there was definitely nothing scary about it.
Reigning U.S. novice champion Eliot Halverson (St. Paul, Minn./St. Paul FSC) won back-to-back U.S. titles Friday morning by securing the junior men’s gold medal at the 2007 State Farm U.S. Championships in Spokane, Wash. The last man to pull the out the double victories in consecutive years was Evan Lysacek, who won the novice title in 1999 and followed it up with junior gold in 2000.
“I feel incredible,” Halverson said just after stepping off the ice. “That was definitely the program I wanted to do. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Halverson’s program combined music from “Beetlejuice” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” While he was solid in his jumping technique, landing six clean triples (the back end of a triple Lutz-triple toe combination was downgraded), it’s his smooth as butter presentation that sets him apart.
“I think that it’s (presentation) really important for me, and it’s always been something that I concentrate really hard on doing in practice,” he said. “I don’t think about it during competition. In practice I will work on that a lot and when it comes to competition I can just focus on the jumps.”
With two U.S. titles under his belt, Halverson now will focus on the next step in his career. One of his goals will be working on the triple Axel. Although he has landed them in practice, Halverson and coaches Ted Engelking and Ann Eidson chose not to include it Friday’s program. Landing that, and continuing his success internationally, will be part of his future plans.
“I’m so excited about everything that will come with my skating career and with my life,” he said. “I think as I get older I think about how much I’ve changed just from a couple years back, and it gets me so excited for what’s going to happen in the next 10 years, 20 years. So this is just another stepping stone in my long career plans.”
American junior men, including Halverson, had extraordinary success on the international circuit this year. The 16-year-old, who was adopted from Bogota, Colombia as an infant, won two medals in the Junior Grand Prix Series but failed to qualify for the JGP Final.
Brandon Mroz (St. Louis, Mo./Broadmoor SC) did qualify and finished with the silver medal in Bulgaria. He collected the silver medal Friday as well, collecting 116.80 points in the free skate and 178.56 overall.
Mroz’s only major error was a bad stumble out of the double Axel, but he had a few bobbles throughout.
“Going in second, you have that feeling of you’re up there but if you want to move up you’ve got to throw down the gauntlet,” he said. “I’ve been in this situation before. I’ve been in better and worse spots, so I know how to deal with the pressure. I’ve gone through that all season.”
Mroz’s training mate in Colorado Springs, Austin Kanallakan, found himself in sixth after the short program and skating seventh overall on Friday. Maybe that took some of the pressure off, because he managed to win the free skate by a sliver over Halverson, 122.90-122.67. His element score of 68.04 outpaced the field but the deficit was too much to overcome the leaders. He won the bronze.
He landed seven triples, including an opening triple flip-triple toe combination that received all positive grades of execution. For the first time, he also landed both double Axels in his program.
“I just took everything one step at a time and took my time in everything,” he said. “I didn’t get into the choreography as I usually do, but it was still pretty good.”
Fourth place went to Curran Oi (Sc of Boston), with 170.50 total points.
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