Saturday, September 10, 2022
U.S. Figure Skating reformatted the National Qualifying Series again...for the second time in as many years. Last year they had the Championship Series for Juvenile to Senior and it included a regional competition. Emily competed in Leesburg, VA. This year, they changed it up again and got rid of regionals, as we knew it, and just named certain competitions as "qualifying." You could compete in as many as you wanted, anywhere you wanted and your top score would count. Then they took the top 6, basically, to sectionals. Not an ideal set up, but we signed up anyway. Emily was just hoping she would better her score this year over last. Due to the locations of the competitions and our schedule, she ended up only getting one shot at it - John Smith in Charlotte, North Carolina.
We arrived on Thursday night and Emily skated her short program on Friday evening. She skated pretty well, but she singled her double lutz and she only got credit for a level B step sequence. She a little disappointed, but hoped to rally for the long program.
Saturday afternoon was the long program. She had been struggling a little with confidence coming out of the end of the summer, but we were hopeful that maybe she had gotten through it. Unfortunately, it was not to be. She opened with a good single axel, but then singled her double lutz and double loop. She got credit for all the rest of her doubles, but she fell twice (which is VERY unlike her). It was just not her skate. She did get a step sequence 1 and a 2 on her flying change foot camel spin. She was definitely more than a little disappointed and she did not better her overall score from last year, but she finished the program without tears. Under the circumstances, I will call that a win. Oh well, next year we will try again.
What made the weekend salvageable was the fact that a bunch of kids from our club went to the competition too. Emily was the only one in the qualifying portion of the competition, but it was so great to have so many of our skaters there!
