OlympicTalk · Jan 20, 2017
U.S. Championships pairs short program produces surprise leaders
U.S. Figure Skating president: Russia shouldn’t be in PyeongChang OlympicsKANSAS CITY — The U.S. Figure Skating Championships started with a surprise. A big one.
Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc, in their first year together, topped the pairs short program with a clean performance. The pre-event favorites all erred on Thursday evening.
Cain and LeDuc scored 69.33 points, edging Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier by 3.96 points. Deanna Stellato and Nathan Bartholomay are third, followed by Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran.
Bartholomay and Castelli were Sochi Olympians with different partners.
Defending champions Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea were fifth after Kayne fell hard on their throw triple Lutz.