AP News, January 27th, 2007
Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski won their first pairs title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Friday, surging past defending champs Rena Inoue and John Baldwin with an innovative and solid performance.
"We worked hard to make this happen," Castile said.
Castile and Okolski were third after the short program, but they jumped ahead with a total score of 178.40 points. That was enough to put them in front of Inoue and Baldwin, who blew their chance at a third national title with two major mistakes, including a crash on their trademark throw triple axel.
Inoue and Baldwin finished with 178.15 points. Naomi Nari Nam and Themi Leftheris dropped to a distant third after missing both of their throws.
"I wish we knew that, too," Nam said when asked what went wrong. "We had a great opening. I just wish we'd stayed focused throughout the program. I hope we learn from this and next time, we won't have to answer that question."
The free dance was later Friday, and the suspense wasn't whether Olympic silver medalists Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto would win their fourth straight title, but who would finish second.
Pairs has pretty much been a wasteland in the United States for much of the last decade. There might have been one team with an outside shot at a bronze medal at the Olympics or world championships, but even that usually took an absence by one of the world's top teams.
Suffice it to say, the Chinese and Europeans weren't losing any sleep over their American competition. Even when Inoue and Baldwin became the first couple to land a throw triple axel, it wasn't enough to scare anybody.
But Castile and Okolski might change that.
At 20 and 22, they're relative babies in pairs. But they've been together for five years already, and were looking for their breakthrough. They were eighth at nationals last year, and had to go through sectionals to qualify for this year's event.
Somewhere along the way, though, they made a dramatic improvement.
Skating to "Requiem for a Dream," they showed the kind of innovation and quality not seen very often on this side of the Atlantic. They were fast and smooth, and used their edges the way skate inventors meant them to be.
They didn't settle for the usual tricks, either. Their triple twist was spectacular, so huge he had time to lace up his skates before he caught her again. Their entry into the throw triple salchow was a dance lift, making the trick even harder.
What stood out most, though, was his footwork during their lifts. He skated so quietly and with such even speed that it was hard to tell he was carrying another person above him.
Their only flaw _ and they were slight _ was getting a little out-of-unison on their footwork and side-by-side spins.
They bear-hugged each other when their music ended, and the audience gave them a standing ovation. Inoue and Baldwin were up next, and they were left to cool their skates on the ice while they heard the marks they'd have to beat.
After their one trick, it was clear they wouldn't be able to do it.
"Even though we missed a couple things, I'm happy with the way we skated, considering all we've been through this year," Baldwin said.
If Inoue and Baldwin are known for anything besides the throw triple axel, it's Baldwin falling on their side-by-side triple jumps. Sure enough, he crashed to the ice on a triple toe loop, taking their title hopes right along with him.
Inoue landed the throw triple axel on her feet, but couldn't hold on. She flipped off her edge and fell over, drawing a sympathetic "Oooh" from the crowd.
Even after the errors, Inoue and Baldwin kept fighting. The national title might have been out of their reach, but there was still a spot on the world championship team at stake.
Their overhead lift was impressive, with him raising her into the air and setting her down with one arm. They were in perfect unison on their side-by-side spins, looking as if they were both being directed by the same string.
Baldwin clapped when their marks were shown, but they still had to wait for Nam and Leftheris, their training partners who had been second after the short program. But the youngsters are only in their second season together, and their inexperience showed as they botched both of their triple throws.
