Lombard to the Worlds

2022-10-22

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Lombard Skate Club ready for the Worlds.

Nationals

2022-07-09

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Bottom line: girls made it to the World Team as WS Junior Quartet and are going to Buenos Aires this October.

In the Solo Dance event Anne got fifth. Could be third, but that didn't happen for the number of reasons.
I am very tired, and on Sunday we are leaving for Devil's Lake. No details, sorry.

Anne:

Photo  |  Style Dance |  Style Dance Official |  Free Dance |  Free Dance Official

Quartet:

Photo  | Quartet  |  Quartet Official  |  Quartet Pro

Те, кто читает по-русски, несколько более детальное описание могут найти здесь.

Regionals

2022-06-12

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Just got back from Appleton, WI, well, technically it's Grand Chute. Just to remind: there are ten USARS regions. We belong to the Great Lakes Region that consists of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, and the Regional competitions serve as a qualifier for the National championships. Where, in turn, winners in World Class events get qualified for the US World Team. This year's World will be held in Buenos Aires.

Liza didn't skate for obvious reasons. Annie skated Junior World Class Solo Dance and got third.

Quartet skated as a trio, with alternate just doing rollout. She will be skating at Nationals as well, if there is no competition. If there is, Liza will try to skate.

Here are the videos:
Anne Style Dance
Anne Free Dance
Quartet

In a few weeks we are going to Lincoln, Nebraska for Nationals.

Some bad luck

2022-06-01

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Aaaaaand it looks like Liza broke her arm. Practice, bad fall. Will know for sure tomorrow.
One week to Regionals, five weeks to Nationals.

UPD: broken wrist, both radius and ulna, with displacement. They tried to re-align broken bones, but they can't be sure about the result until next week. There will be another x-ray, and either everything is right, or a surgery will be needed.

UPD 2: Since Liza was in a lot of pain, Lena took her back to the doctor's office, and they did another x-ray without waiting a week. Turned out bones are re-aligned perfectly, surgery not needed, 4 to 6 weeks to heal.

Aurora

2022-05-22

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The last league meet of the season, pretty small, nobody cares much: everyone is already thinking of Regionals. A lot of people just skipped it. Caroline wasn't there, so no quartet; Annie didn't skate also, she had a scholarship chemistry test and chose to stay at home and study. Liza skated great though, her score is much better now.

Videos: Style Dance | Free Dance

Elyria

2022-05-02

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Came back from Ohio Cup late last night. No photos except for a couple of phone pics, very dark rink again. For some reason I wasn't in the mood even to try. So, just videos.

Quartet
Anne: Style | Free Dance
Liza: Style | Free Dance

Lynwood

2022-03-05

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Another league meet, this time in Lynwood. Everyone keeps changing their routines, there is a lot of improvements. I only took photos though: as I have mentioned before, Lynwood got decent lights. So no video, alas.

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

Aurora

2022-02-04

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Girls went to Aurora for the first league meet of the season. The rink was very dark as always; all those rinks are basically barns, dark and damp. Lombard rink is a very rare and happy exclusion. Lynwood added some decent lights before the 2019 World Qualifier, but it's still a barn. I don't mind the barn-ness, but the lack of light drives me nuts. It is almost impossible to get a photo of acceptable quality.

Same routines, different judging: unlike Orlando and Nationals, league competitions are still being judged old school, so nobody cared much about results. There were no surprises though. Girls are now skating in the same event (Junior World Class Solo Dance) with Samantha and Lilian, and they both are much stronger, especially Sam. So Liza and Annie fall behind, and that is going to be a story of this season, barring some unexpected breakthrough. Hope it won't get them excessively depressed. Here are some videos:

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

Americas Cup

2022-01-19

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Several firsts for my girls: first international competition, first Junior World Class level skating, first time doing Style Dance, and first time traveling without us, since I am still recovering after the surgery. That means no photos, and videos are screengrabbed from the official stream, which sucked big time. I don't want to miss their meets ever again, that stream was a real shame. On the other hand, we should be grateful even for that: they kept having technical issues, so there was a chance to end up with no video at all.

Girls skated Style Dance and Free Dance, which are parts of the same event. Besides, they skated quartet together with Isa and Caroline. Competition was much stronger than at Nationals: there were large teams from Brazil, Spain, Chile etc, and those girls were fantastic, so American skaters tended to group up at the bottom of the final results tables. Liza ended up with the 8th place, Annie got 9th. For quartet they got gold, since they were the only Youth Quartet competing.

Coaches are pretty happy with the results. Jim says both girls are "ahead of schedule". As for me, I am proud as hell: I never cared about tech points or medals, I just wanted them to dance, and boy can they dance.

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

UPD: Annie asked not to publish her Style Dance routine. She is really unhappy with it, although I am not sure why. Looked pretty good to me.

Nationals 2021

2021-08-02

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Couple of firsts: first medal from Nationals and first official photo, never did that before. Liza got third, Anne got fourth.

Anne:

Photos | Official Video | Pro Video | My Video

Liza:

Photos | Official Video | Pro Video | My Video