At the end of the Junior Men's competition at the State Farm U.S. Championships, 15-year-old Ryan Bradley became the first man to win the event and score a touchdown at the same time.
As Bradley completed his program, the crowd showered him with stuffed animals, acknowledging his winning performance. As he neared the edge of the ice, someone in the crowd threw a football, which he deftly caught and then "spiked.""It feels great to be up there with the big guys," Bradley said later. "I've never really had a title like this."
Bradley won both the short and the long programs, solidifying his position atop the field of up-and-coming American men. His long program, skated to music by George M. Cohan, was playful and packed with five triple jumps. He did not attempt a triple axel, which he has landed in practice, and said that was among his primary goals for the coming year.
"Next year, I'm just hoping to improve and come back and do my best again. I'll just have a lot more ammunition next year."
Don Baldwin improved upon his fifth-place finish at Nationals last year -- and his fourth-place showing in Tuesday's short program -- to finish second. The 21-year-old from San Diego, Calif., said he went into the long program feeling that the pressure was off.
"Last year, I was second in the short program and was kind of hoping to win. . . . This year, there was a little less pressure, I think. I wasn't trying to win, being in fourth place it would be pretty hard to do. So I guess the pressure was off, and I tried to take one jump at a time."
His jumps included a triple Lutz-double toe loop combination, along with three other triple jumps. Next year, Baldwin said he's looking forward to competing at the Senior level.
"I forget how many years I've been in Juniors, but I think it's time to move up," he joked.
Last year's Novice division winner, Parker Pennington, showed he was prepared to play at the next level. The only competitor to attempt a triple axel (he stumbled), 14-year-old Pennington said his goal this year was just to place in the top three. Next year is a different story.
"This year was a real experience for me. I just wanted to come here and skate my best. I hoped to be on the podium this year, and next year I'm hoping to win."
The Junior Pairs competition also concluded on Thursday with a battle between "The Mask of Zorros."
The brother-sister team of Sima and Amir Ganaba, in front after the short program, threw down the gauntlet first with the competition's largest throw jumps. Though not the throw triple jumps performed by the eventual second-place winners, Jaisa MacAdam and Garrett Lucash (who placed second at last year's Nationals as well), 12-year-old Sima Ganaba was airborne for what seemed like minutes before securely landing a throw double Salchow and an enormous throw double loop. Their program was balanced and well-tailored to their ambitious skating style. This is definitely a team to watch. Still, the Ganabas said they were surprised with the final results.
"I feel overwhelmed," Sima Ganaba said. "We were really coming here just hoping for the top six. This is our first year in juniors, and we didn't even know that we were going to win."
The duo was nervous coming into Thursday's long program, evidenced by a shaky warm-up in which Sima Ganaba bobbled and balked on several jumps. It took some calming from their coach, Peter Oppegard, to help them focus on putting together a confident performance.
"They were a little different psychologically going into the long, because they didn't think they'd be going out there trying to figure out how to protect a win. . . . If you notice, their warm-up was a little cautious, and there were some problems. So, when they came over, I said, 'Don't ever skate to protect a win. Don't skate conservatively. Skate as aggressively as possible.' I think they settled down."
MacAdam and Lucash followed with their own "Mask of Zorro" program, which included a solid throw triple Salchow and an exciting "swoop" dismount from one of their lifts. However, they lost some momentum late in the program, especially in their side-by-side spins.
Another brother-sister team, Megan and Dustin Sierk of Huntsville, Ala., slipped from their second-place finish in the short program to end up third.