Two Pairs of Siblings on Top in Novice Ice Dancing
by Daphne Backman
 (St. Charles, Mo., 1/8/05) - Novice ice dancing at the 2006 State Farm U.S. Championships quickly became an episode in family feud as two pairs of siblings set themselves apart from the pack and into position to battle for the gold medal.
Madison Hubbell and Keiffer Hubbell
(Ann Arbor FSC) and Cathy Reed and Chris Reed (SC of Morris N.J.) tied in the first dance, the blues, with 19.50. Since Hubbell and Hubbell’s total element score (TES) mark of 18.01 was higher than Reed and Reed’s (17.91), Hubbell and Hubbell went into the lead.
On the second dance, the starlight waltz, Hubbell and Hubbell broke the numeral tie and currently hold an extremely narrow lead of 38.73 to 38.44.
Hubbell and Hubbell (pictured) felt good being in the lead after the compulsory dances. Both prefer to skate the starlight but enjoy the expression of moodiness in the blues.
“We’ve always been better at the free dance than the compulsories, but I felt this year that we’ve improved on the compulsories a lot and I’m glad it showed off,” Madison said.
Reed and Reed made a coaching change this season to Nikoli Morozov and Shae-Lynn Bourne in Connecticut, and it seems to have paid off. After narrowly missing qualifying for the U.S. Championships in 2005, they find themselves as the second pair of siblings battling for the gold.
“The move really changed us,” Cathy said. “It’s a great opportunity to train with all of those senior teams in Simsbury. We see them and train with them every day. Their compulsories are so fast.”
In third place, Samantha Tomarchio (Columbia FSC) and Nicholas Sinchak (Bowies FSC) are excited to be at their first U.S. Championships. They too narrowly missed competing at the event last year. They are solidly in third with 33.67.
It’s a close contest for the fourth spot and final podium medal. New team Michelle Pennington and Brad Coulter (Stars FSC) are in fourth (30.99) but are closely followed by Katie Wyble (Center Ice & Blades of Western Pennsylvania) and Chad Reinhold (All Year FSC) in fifth (30.10) and 2005 U.S. intermediate champions Piper Gilles and Timothy McKernan (BroadmoorSC) in sixth (29.34). Shannon Wingle (Arctic FSC) and Ryan Devereaux (CoyotosSC of Arizona) with 29.15 round out the four teams who are competing for the final medal.
The novice ice dancing event concludes tomorrow with the free dance at 5:30 p.m.
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