2009 Junior National Championships Blog
December 13, 2008
Hi again! Well news travels fast....
Olivia and Tyler had a good skate and despite receiving no value on a lift and only a level one?? on their pair spin...They won by over 4 points! Yippeee...
The waiting game was so reminiscent of last year it was scary. But since the results were the same, we'll take it. :)
The kids were immediately interviewed for a story on icenetwork and following the last skaters were interviewed again by Nancy Kerrigan. They were anxious to get into the stands and watch Intermediate Men Short programs and root for their good friend BJ Conrad....by the way he skated clean and is entering the long in 9th place...we are thrilled. After all the excitement, dinner didn't happen until about 11 pm...I think we finally hit the hay around 2 am (technically Tyler's birthday). The awards ceremony is Saturday night so the kids will get all dressed in their outfits one last time and participate in the ceremony at the close of the events tomorrow. Then the big birthday bash for Tyler who will be the big 13 on Saturday!!!
We will attach photos as soon as the events are over.
Thanks for all your support!
Go KCFSC!
December 11, 2008
Hi again from Lake Placid! Wednesday we awoke to rain and green grass everywhere. Looks as if the sledding adventure is on hold.
As planned, Tyler opened this years Junior Nationals as the first skater of the event. He landed his first 2 double axels in competition and fell once on a double lutz. Overall it was a good skate. Ty looked
a bit tired during the performance but considering he had more food outtake than intake over the past few days, we were happy that he just got out there. He ended up 14th and the top 10 moved on to the finals.
The drama of the day belonged to Ryan Santee. He opened his program with a fall on crossovers and proceeded to do a double axel…the music was then stopped due to a pant strap that had come loose. He finished the program only to find that he had been assessed a 2 point deduction
for the interruption (in addition to the fall at the beginning and another fall at the end) - new ISU rule. It did seem a bit punitive and I am sure we will be reading about it in PSA editorials for some time to come. Unfortunately he did not make finals either.
PSA had a very nice reception in the museum. It was nice to catch up with old friends from back East. The rain had turned to a bit of snow so there was still hope for outdoor fun. Thursday we spent most of the day watching Juvenile Boys and Intermediate Ladies…lots of wonderful little
skaters.
Kitty joined us for our pair practices. Good Cop, Bad Cop…..Can you guess which one was which? Her favorite pair team in the whole world can do no wrong!! The kids accomplished their greatest goal already in Lake Placid….they finally had their sledding adventure!
They are sleeping in on Friday but will be excited to find out that it snowed another 8 inched overnight. We are all excited for pairs at 5:30EST and we will keep you updated!
Bye for now from Lake Placid…
December 9, 2008
Hello from Lake Placid!
The trip started out interesting and fun. Tyler and Olivia said their goodbyes in Minneapolis on Friday as he headed home to fly out of KC and Livi left out of Minneapolis. Well, on Saturday as everyone was excited to get to New York to see friends,and unbeknownst to any of us, we all ended up on the same connecting flight
in Cleveland!
BJ Conrad and his family, Mrs Wylie, and the entire Broderick clan all met up with the Oltmanns' by chance in the airport. Made for a fun beginning.
We had a few navigational issues on the way into Lake Placid but as usual the ride was very beautiful. Beautiful was one thing, minus 8 degrees is another! It was minus 26 wind chill on our first day out and about.
Practices on Sunday went well. Olivia skated a regular freestyle session and was fortunate enough to be on the ice with the famous Protopopovs. Still fit as as fiddles and working on steps and elements together. What a cool experience!
Monday was full of pairs and singles practices. All went quite well. We all did some Christmas shopping and enjoyed good food and fun times. We are trying to sample all the restaurants before we leave. The draw was not quite as fun as the day. Tyler drew 1st in singles and
the pairs drew 3rd in skating order. Oh well...I was kindly reminded by the referee that 3rd wasn't such a bad spot to be last year. Let's hope we are that fortunate!
Today-Tuesday- has been a trying day. Tyler has had the flu since late last night. Despite thowing up between each practice, they have had the greatest practices. Determination has been an amazing medicine.
Tyler skates his initial round in singles tomorrow at exactly noon! Wish him luck...He is very excited! The plan is to skate great and then have family and friends over for dinner and sledding (Our condos have sledding right out the back door)
We'll be in touch with more news! Stay Warm.