A Winning Night for Rhianna Brammeier in Novice Ladies
by Michelle Wojdyla

“I consider the short and long program completely different competitions because I do get more nervous for certain ones, depending on how they went,” Brammeier said. “I took the ice and I felt very confident because I’ve worked so hard on this program, but I was also very nervous. I was like, ‘This is nationals! Come on, you can do it!’ I think definitely that I was peaceful out there and it was really fun.”

Brammeier won both the technical score and the program components in her “Scent of a Woman” free skate. Of the 90 grade of execution scores from the judging panel, only two of those were –1. She received base or +1 for the other 88. She completed three combination jumps, a triple Salchow-double toe, double Axel-double toe, and double flip-double loop. She and Rizo were the only ladies to complete a triple loop, Brammeier receiving .29 GOE for the move. Her other triple was a solo Salchow. Her levels were high, with three 3s and a level 4 layback spin that pulled up into a Biellmann. Brammeier has focused a lot of attention on her spins.

“I’ve worked really hard all year,” she said. “When you’re in competition and the adrenaline’s going, you always want to count faster. I’m like ‘1-2---hold, hold a little longer—OK, go!’ You kind of learn with the music, too, where the spin should end. You have to keep counting.”

Rosenthal had a busy day. This morning she competed two junior compulsory dances with partner Calvin Taylor over at SavvisCenter and then made her way to Family Arena to win the silver in novice ladies with her “Scheherazade” program.

“She did great!” Taylor, who attended the ladies event, said. “I was hoping she was going to medal and place well, but this is awesome! She had both events today but she had her times arranged. Everything was separated. It didn’t make anything complicated on us. We met up when we had to meet up. We got everything done. Obviously she did something right!”

“Something right” included four triple jumps, two of them in combination. Her triple Salchow and triple toe both received base scores. Her triple flip-double toe took a slight hit of -.29 and hopping on the end of a triple Salchow-double toe-double loop lost her a full point. Her spins and footwork levels ranged from 2 to 4. Rosenthal was pleased with her effort.

“It [doing dance and singles] was kind of hard, but I do both every day, and I do runthroughs of all of everything everyday so it isn’t really that bad,” she said.

But second place was not expected.

“I just wanted to skate my best and whatever would happen would happen. I thought it was really good. I was really happy during it. I was just excited to be here. It felt good. I felt ready. I probably could have gone a little faster, but it was still good.”

Karl Kurtz, her coach, had praise for his skater.

“I was thrilled,” he said. “I thought she paced herself really well through the program. We had talked about that, and I thought she just took one thing at a time and finished it off really well. It just kind of flowed element to element. I thought it was a really nice performance. I was extremely pleased as a coach.”

Although Rosenthal wasn’t sure if she would call it a personal best, Kurtz thought it was.

“I would say that [it was] because we put the double Axel-double loop and the triple Sal-double toe-double loop in the second half of the program, and those were upgrades from Easterns, from sectionals. So we challenged and she stepped up,” he said.

Pulling double duty in ice dancing and singles is a plus for Rosenthal.

“I think dance helps a lot because it’s good to get into your knees and especially with the new judging system, with the footwork you really have to be on edges and it’s good because I know what to do,” she said. “I know how to be in all the right positions.”

Brittney Rizo pulled up to third with her “Don Juan DeMarco” program.

“I just tried to do the best I could that day,” Rizo said.

She had been struggling with a sinus infection and just had gotten her voice back today.

“I felt awesome,” she said. “Because I got the first few jumps down, I was like all right. And then going into my last jump, I was like OK, you can do this. And this was *thump* NO! But I was like, whatever, I’m just going to have fun the rest of the time.”

After completing four clean triples (loop, toe, Salchow-double toe, and triple toe-double toe), Rizo headed down the ice for her final triple. Her Salchow went up, but she missed the landing and fell.

“I was thinking ahead of myself,” Rizo said.

Scarincio had multiple errors in her free skate that place her in sixth in that portion and fourth overall.

One of the perks of being U.S. champion is participating in the exhibitions live on Sunday.

“That hit me a little while ago,” Brammeier said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, going out there and being in spotlights and being on TV. It’s just everything that I’ve worked so hard for. I’m really excited.”

Brammeier has never performed in front of such a large audience, but she’s attended shows and draws her inspiration from a former novice silver medalist, Olympic champion Tara Lipinski.

“Going to Stars on Ice and seeing Tara Lipinski out there and seeing all the people and how she relates to the audience, it’s so incredible. I really want to portray that and really do that also. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m still deciding if I want to do my short program or if I just want to make it up. I’m kind of leaning toward making it up.”

Tune into your local ABC station Sunday afternoon to find out!

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