Pacific Coast Sectionals Novice Men's Results

Place	Start No.	Name	Short Program		Free Skate		Total Score
			Place	Score	Place	Score
1	7	Daniel Samohin, Los Angeles FSC	1	46.16	1	83.68	129.84
2	11	Paolo Borromeo, Los Angeles FSC	2	43.36	2	81.94	125.30
3	6	Harrison Wong, La Jolla FSC	3	41.83	3	70.90	112.73
4	10	Albert Zeng, SC of San Francisco	6	34.06	4	64.66	98.72
5	9	Wilbur Ji, SC of San Francisco	4	36.15	7	60.95	97.10
6	2	Sahmaro Rockhold, Los Angeles FSC	9	33.22	5	62.09	95.31
7	1	Darian Weiss, Los Angeles FSC	8	33.44	6	61.72	95.16
8	8	Ethan Amaral, All Year FSC	5	35.83	8	57.48	93.31
9	4	Ikaika Miyata, Everett FSC	7	33.93	9	55.21	89.14
10	5	Alec Schmitt, Bremerton FSC	10	31.50	10	51.92	83.42
11	3	Remington Burghart, Alaska Assoc of Figure Skaters	11	24.80	11	45.33	70.13
WD		Kevin Shum, St. Moritz ISC

Pacific Coast Sectionals Preview

Saturday, November 10th
6:20-7:25 Novice Pattern Dance
8:25-9:30 Novice Ladies Short Program
9:45-10:45 Junior Short Dance
11:00-12:05 Novice Men's Short Program

Sunday, November 11th
6:10-6:50 Novice Free Dance
7:05-7:55 Junior Men's Short Program
8:10-9:25 Novice Ladies Free Skate
10:05-11:15 Novice Men's Free Skate

Monday, November 12th
12:50-1:05 Novice Pairs Short Program
1:05-2:10 Junior Ladies Short Program
2:25-3:00 Junior Pairs Short Program
5:50-7:10 Senior Ladies Short Program
7:30-8:35 Junior Men's Free Skate
8:50-9:55 Junior Free Dance
10:10-10:55 Senior Men's Short Program

Tuesday, November 13th
12:30-1:45 Junior Ladies Free Skate
2:00-2:20 Novice Pairs Free Skate
2:20-2:55 Junior Pairs Free Skate
4:30-6:15 Senior Ladies Free Skate
6:30-7:30 Senior Men's Free Skate

Senior Ladies

Thirteen ladies are competing for four places at nationals.  Vanessa Lam placed 9th at nationals last season and finished 4th at her JGP assignment.  She has the 3rd best short program, best free skate and best total score from regionals.  Sophia Adams placed 17th at nationals last season.

Courtney Hicks was injured last season and couldn't compete at nationals.  She placed 4th and won a silver medal at her two JGP assignments.

Senior Men

Seven men are competing for four spots to nationals.  Keegan Messing placed 7th at nationals last season and won gold at Cup of Nice and bronze at Nebelhorn Trophy.  Scott Dyer finished 10th at nationals and Jonathan Cassar finished 11th.  Philip Warren is the reigning Junior Bronze Medalist.

Senior Pairs

Denney and Frazier have chosen to take their bye to nationals so this event will not be contested.

Senior Dance

This will be exhibition only as only Tran and Kaplun are competing.

Junior Ladies

There are twelve ladies competing for four places at nationals.  Polina Edmunds finished 6th at nationals last season and has the 2nd best short program, best free skate and best total score from regionals.  Gwendolyn Prescott finished 7th at nationals last season and has the 9th best short program score from regionals.  Camille Davis finished 12th at nationals.

Karen Chen is the reigning Novice Ladies Champion and has the 6th best short program, 5th best free skate and 5th best total regional score.  Amanda Gelb is the reigning Novice Ladies Bronze Medalist and has the 10th best regional score.  Selena Zhao finished 7th as a novice last season and has the 6th best free skate and total score after regionals.  Dylan McIntee finished 9th as a novice last season. 

Junior Men

Eight men are competing for four spots at nationals.  Nathan Chen is the reigning National Champion and won gold at his JGP assignment.  Shotaro Omori placed 4th at his two JGP assignments this season.  

Vincent Zhou is the reigning Novice National Champion and has the best short program, free skate and total score from regionals.  Spencer Howe is the reigning Novice Bronze Medalist and has the 3rd best short program score from regionals.  

Junior Pairs

Four teams are competing and all will qualify to nationals.  Calalang and Sidhu are the reigning Pewter Medalists and finished 6th and 8th at their two JGP assignments this season.  Pfund and Reiss placed  5th at nationals and finished 7th at their JGP assignment.

Liu and Perini are the reigning Novice Champions and Fields/Pacini are the reigning Novice Silver Medalists.

Junior Dance

Six teams are competing for four spots at nationals.  Heritage and Fast finished 5th at nationals last season and placed 7th at their JGP assignment.  Siddon and Weiss finished 5th at the novice level last season.  

Novice Ladies

Twelve ladies are competing for four places at nationals.  Elizabeth Nguyen is the reigning Intermediate Silver Medalist and has the 7th best short program and total score from regionals.  Tyler Pierce is the reigning Intermediate Bronze Medalist and has the best short program, 3rd best free skate and best total regional score.  Sarah Feng finished 8th in Intermediate last season and has the 8th best regional short program score.  Cheyenne Taylor finished 10th and  Brittney Shiue finished 19th last season.   

Novice Men

Ten men are competing for four spots at nationals.  Wilbur Ji finished 12th at nationals last season.  

Paolo Borromeo is the reigning Intermediate Men's Bronze Medalist.  He has the 4th best free skate and 6th best total score from regionals.  Harrison Wong is the reigning Intermediate Men's Pewter Medalist.  

Novice Pairs

Two teams are competing and both will advance to nationals.  Middleton and Hennings finished 5th at nationals last season.  Erickson and Fleming finished 10th as Intermediates last season.

Novice Dance

Six teams are competing for four spots at nationals.  Lewis and Bye are the reigning Pewter Medalists.  Feng and Pomarenkeo finished 5th at the Intermediate level last season and Luo and Cheung finished 11th.

U.S. Nationals Novice Men's Preview

Vincent Zhou enters this event as the favorite after winning both of his qualifying events this season by comfortable margins.  At just 11 years old, he already has one national championship to his name, winning the intermediate level last season.  He has double axels and lots of triple jumps and while not everything is the prettiest, he is fairly consistent and sticks his landings.  He has the top two scores of the season by a comfortable margin and should win this event solidly.


Here's the video of his winning performance at Junior Nationals last season.

Kevin Shum finished 2nd behind Zhou at both of his events last season and had consistent scoring between the two events.  He lost points when he completed an illegal triple+triple combination in his short program at Sectionals but that technical prowess could give him an edge if he uses it correctly.  He is also one of two skaters that made it to nationals at the novice level last season and that experience should allow him to better handle the pressure of skating in a larger event with bigger crowds.


The rest of the skaters are fairly evenly matched, and I think the whole event will be close, especially the race for the podium.  Of the rest of the field, Tony Lu had the highest scores and was the most consistent between events so I give him a slight edge.


My podium predictions:
Gold: Vincent Zhou
Silver: Kevin Shum
Bronze: Tony Lu
Pewter: Spencer Howe


Bios of the competitors:
Tony Lu: He is 12 years old and competes on behalf of the Skating Club of Wilmington.  He is the 2010 Juvenile Boys Silver Medalist and finished 18th in Juvenile Boys in 2009.  He won gold at South Atlantic Regionals and Eastern Sectionals to qualify for Nationals.  He has the 7th best short program, 3rd best free skate and 4th best total score.


Jimmy Ma: He placed 14th in Intermediate Men in 2010.  He won silver at North Atlantic Regionals and Eastern Sectionals to qualify for Nationals.  He has the 2nd best short program, 8th best free skate and 5th best total score.


Oleksiy Melnyk: He is 14 years old and competes on behalf of the Washington Figure Skating Club.  He is the 2011 Intermediate Men's Silver Medalist and finished 7th in Juvenile Boys in 2009.  He won silver at South Atlantic Regionals and the pewter medal at Eastern Sectionals to qualify for Nationals.  He has the 9th best short program and 10th best total score.


James Schetelich: He is 15 years old and represents the Skating Club of New York.  He placed 18th in Intermediate Men in 2010 and is the 2009 Juvenile Boys pewter medalist.  He won gold at North Atlantic Regionals and the bronze medal at Eastern Sectionals to qualify for Nationals.  He has the 3rd best short program and 6th best free skate and total scores.

Chase Belmontes: He represents the Broadmoor Skating Club.  He placed 20th in Intermediate Men in 2010.  He won gold at Southwestern Regionals and silver at Midwestern Sectionals to qualify for nationals.  He has the 10th best short program, 7th best free skate and 8th best total score.


Brian Krentz: He represents the Skokie Valley Skating Club.  He placed 5th in Intermediate Pairs in 2011.  He won gold Upper Great Lakes Regionals and Midwestern Sectionals to qualify for nationals.  He has the 4th best free skate and 7th best total score.


Kyle Shropshire: He represents the Wagon Wheel Skating Club.  He placed 13th in Intermediate Men in 2010.  He won the bronze medal at Upper Great Lakes Regionals and pewter medal at Midwestern Sectionals to qualify for nationals.  He has the 9th best free skate and 10th best total score.


Nicholas Vrdoljak: He is 15 years old and competes for Northern Ice Skating Club.  He is the 2009 Juvenile Boys Champion and placed 5th in Intermediate Men in 2010 and 14th in Juvenile Boys in 2008.  He won the silver medal at Upper Great Lakes Sectionals and bronze at Midwestern Sectionals to qualify for nationals.  He has the 6th best short program and 9th best total score.

Spencer Howe: He is 15 years old and represents the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club.  He is the 2009 Juvenile Boys silver medalist, placed 16th in Intermediate Men in 2010 and 6th in Novice Men in 2011.  He won bronze at Pacific Coast Sectionals to qualify for nationals.  He has the 5th best short program and free skate and 3rd best total score.


Wilbur Ji: He represents the Skating Club of San Francisco.  He won bronze at Central Pacific Regionals and the pewter medal at Pacific Coast Sectionals to qualify for Nationals.  


Kevin Shum: He represents the St. Moritz Ice Skating Club.  He is the 2008 Juvenile Boys Champion, placed 7th in Intermediate Men in 2009, 6th in Intermediate Men in 2010 and 9th in Novice Men in 2011.  He won silver at Central Pacific Regionals and Pacific Coast Sectionals to qualify for nationals.  He has the 4th best short program and 2nd best free skate and total score.


Vincent Zhou: He is 11 years old and represents the Peninsula Skating Club.  He placed 5th in Juvenile Boys in 2010 and is the reigning Intermediate Men's Champion.  He won gold at Central Pacific Regionals and Pacific Coast Sectionals to qualify for nationals. He has the best short program, free skate and total score.