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FIGURE SKATING Young skaters compete for berth at Nationals

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22 hours ago • Dorothy Knoell - Daily Herald (0) Comments

Call it the battle of the mighty mites. Follow the Daily Herald

Monday evening at the , two young men, one just into his teenage years, the other still almost a year away from turning 13, waged a grown-up battle on the ice, throwing out triple Lutzes, triple flips, triple-triples and three-jump combinations with poise beyond their years and talent to spare. Cher Swears Off Macy's When the ice chips settled, it was 12-year-old Vincent Zhou of the All Year Figure Skating Club in Due to Donald Tr… Ontario, Calif., who edged defending U.S. junior champion Nathan Chen of (SLFS) for the junior men’s title at the Pacific Coast Sectional competition.

Of course, both skaters – along with Nix Phengsy of All Year and Shotaro Omori of the Los Angeles FSC – advanced to the U.S. Nationals, where Chen will get another shot at Zhou as he attempts to defend his junior national title.

Skaters from five different classifications are vying for berths to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the Sectionals. Top four in each category move on.

“I didn’t expect to win,” said Zhou, who sported a big smile but was also very calm and collected in the face of television and print media interviews, although the 4-foot-9 youngster just turned 12 Top Sports Stories two weeks ago. “My goal was just to do my best. This is really exciting.”

BYU rides hot start to 15 min ago Chen, also 4-9 and 13 years old as of last May, led after the short program by almost five points, win vs. Georgia State and appeared to seal the victory with a flawless free skate that included a senior-level jump layout, lacking only a triple Axel. Chen, who just became age-eligible for international junior competition in FRANCHUK: For 12 hrs ago May, set a record in his first Junior Grand Prix competition with 222.0 points in winning the event. Bronco to view, or not But a lower leg injury a couple of weeks later forced him to withdraw from his second GP event. to view (scandulous video), that Rather than see if he could get a medical bye to nationals, he chose to compete in Provo. is the question

And he wowed the audience with a three-jump combination, a triple flip-triple toe loop combination, BYU, Poinsettia Bowl 21 hrs ago and four other triples, all done late in the program when they would get bonus points. He earned sound eager for each 126.96 for the program, and 193.05 overall. That appeared to be plenty. other

But then came Zhou, decked out in a tuxedo shirt and bowtie and using music from Casablanca to BYU looks to get even more 22 hrs ago good effect. He also had a three-jump combo and a triple-triple combination – his was triple Lutz- confident in game No. 2 triple toe, a slightly more difficult combo – and five other triples. His free skate total of 134.42 was enough to overcome his five-point deficit from the short program and earn the win with a 196.33 score. UVU Women's 22 hrs ago The boy from the Pacific coast said Provo’s altitude didn’t bother him. Basketball: Jensen’s special night sinks Utah State “I guess I’m kind of strange, because I think I do better at altitude,” he said. “I have really good stamina.”

Zhou said he wasn’t bothered by nerves, and wasn’t surprised to pull out a clean free skate in a Latest Sports News sport when hitting everything scheduled in a program with no errors is not common.

Appling leads Michigan 1 hr ago “I have a saying I like,” he said. “It is, ‘In practice, beat yourself; in competition, be yourself.’ I do St. past Kansas 67-64 clean programs in practice a lot. I should be able to skate clean in competition.”

Zhou is in his first year at the junior level, while Chen is in his second. Both are too young for Cleveland State no 1 hr ago match for No. 5 Michigan Senior international competition, which requires an age of 15. But both appear to be poised to compete for Senior world and Olympic honors for a long time once they become age-eligible. AP source: Marlins trade 1 hr ago In other events on Monday, Springville’s Camille Davis still has a shot to earn her second straight 3 stars to Blue Jays trip to nationals, but she has some ground to make up after falling on her first jump in the junior ladies short program. After an entire season of struggling with boots and injury problems, she scored 40.28 on her program and is in sixth place. The top four finishers earn a berth to nationals, Withey falters, Kansas 1 hr ago and she is about eight points out of fourth, so needs a near-perfect free skate Tuesday (10:30 falls to Michigan St. 67- a.m.) to have a shot at making the top four. 64

In senior ladies, Vanessa Lam and Courtney Hicks of All Year are 1-2 after the short program, No. 22 Oklahoma State edges 1 hr ago Missouri State 74-71 about two points apart. And in senior men, Keegan Messing of the Alaska Association of Figure Skating, scored an eye-popping 80.36 and is comfortably in the lead. Messing was seventh at nationals last season and has a couple of quads in his arsenal. The senior ladies free skate is at Video More Videos 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, while the men’s final is as 4:30 p.m.

Also on Monday, Madeline Heritage and Nathaniel Fast won the junior dance competition.

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