Amber Glenn was disappointed but not defeated after her short program at the US Figure Skating Championships, the reigning champion defiantly vowing to "go on the attack" when she returned to the ice for the free skate on Friday night.
She did exactly that, beginning with a powerful triple axel to start the program and ending with an elegant layback spin.
The 25-year-old from Plano, Texas, wound up with 216.79 points, enough to edge out Alysa Liu, who had led after the short program but made a couple of small mistakes in her free skate that proved to be just big enough. The two-time national champion, in the midst of a comeback from a two-year retirement, finished right behind Glenn with 215.33 points.
"I wasn't feeling my absolute best and today, being able to not fully lock in but for the most part get into the zone I needed to be, I'm very proud of my mental fortitude and the progress I've made," Glenn said.
Two-time champion Bradie Tennell, who was second after the short program, struggled through a fall on her triple lutz in her free skate and was passed for third by Sarah Everhardt, an 18-year-old rising star from Haymarket, Virginia.
Glenn rolled into nationals unbeaten for the season, becoming the first American woman to win the Grand Prix Final in nearly 15 years along the way. But after her uneven short program, Glenn was left in third place and trailing Liu by nearly six points.
Her opening triple axel may have been the best of her career, and it set the tone for the rest of her night. Glenn landed six more triple jumps, including three in combination, before her only real mistake — a fall on her triple loop late in the program.
"I still don't believe I won," Glenn said. "It's a real shock to me."
Liu, the youngest US champion ever when she triumphed at the age of 13, was trying to add a third title five years after winning her last. But a couple of errors, including a mistake on her layback spin at the end, may have cost her the gold.
"I did not think I won," she said with a laugh. "I honestly didn't know if I would medal or not."
Earlier in the night, two-time defending ice dance world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates pranced their way through three decades of popular American music and into a big lead after the rhythm dance portion of their competition.
Chock and Bates scored 92.16 points, nearly 10 more than second-place Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko. To put that into context, second through fourth places were separated by less than a point, with the pair of Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik scoring the exact same — 82.13 points — as Caroline Green and Michael Parsons.
Chock and Bates were not available after their performance because she was dealing with a food-related stomach bug.
They are going for their fourth straight national title and sixth overall, which would tie the US record held by Meryl Davis and Charlie White. And this one would come 11 years after Chock and Bates first stepped atop the podium.
The ice dance finale is Saturday, when world champion Ilia Malinin also will be in action during the men’s short program.
The proscribed style for the rhythm dance this season is "social dances and styles of the 1950s, ‘60s and ’70s," and while many teams chose to dance to Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra or disco fare, the avant-garde Chock and Bates chose to take their fans on a rollicking journey through all three decades of American popular culture.
There was music from "Hawaii Five-O" and a version of "Let’s Twist Again." Chock and Bates did the "Watusi with Lucy" and spent time "Stayin’ Alive" with the Bee Gees. And of course, they had the Village People leading the arena in doing the "YMCA."
The performance underscored their status as favorites heading into the world championships in March in Boston.
They're probably the favorites heading into the Winter Olympics next year in Milan, too.
Carreira and Ponomarenko scored 82.86 points for their cheeky, fun nod to 1950s sock hops. The reigning silver medalists made a small mistake on their twizzle but scored big on their choreographed rhythm sequence to land in second place.
Zingas and Kolesnik, who were fourth a couple of years ago, turned heads with their medley of music by the Bee Gees, and Green and Parsons managed the same score — a rarity in a sport in which there are so many variables — but were slotted into fourth place because they lost to Zingas and Kolesnik in the technical score.
"We're happy to be here and we’ve worked really hard in the time we’ve had since our last competition," Zingas said, "and I think that showed. We were happy to skate and just really enjoyed our performance."
