EVERETT — Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir are the class of American men’s figure skating, and on Friday night the duo gave a terrific one-two showing during the Skate America short program at Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center.
Lysacek, skating next to last among the 10 men’s skaters, put forth a dazzling performance of leaps and spins, scoring an evening-best mark of 81.30 and drawing noisy cheers from the crowd. Weir, who followed Lysacek to the ice, was nearly as good, posting a score of 80.55.
Earlier in the evening, the Russian tandem of Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov were the surprising pairs short program leaders ahead of the reigning world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. Mukhortova and Trankov had a score of 66.32 to lead Savchenko and Szolkowy, who suffered from a missed triple toe loop by Szolkowy — he executed a double instead — in a side by side jump with his partner.
The pairs free skate is scheduled for this afternoon, while the men’s free skate will be tonight. Also on tap today are the ice dancing original dance in the afternoon and the ladies short program this evening.
Lysacek laughed when someone playfully called his Friday night showing perfection, but he knew it was a terrific effort.
“It felt good,” said Lysacek, a 2006 U.S. Olympian and the 2007 and 2008 American champion. “I think there’s definitely areas I can improve upon, but I was very calm and happy from the second I got on the ice. I looked in the crowd and saw people’s faces and I felt like, ‘This is a cool crowd of people.’
“I don’t know why,” he said. “It just felt like it was a real happy building for me.”
Weir, meanwhile, said he was “happy I stayed on my feet.” Weir, also a 2006 Olympian and the U.S. champion from 2004 to 2006 as well as the bronze medalist at the 2008 world championships, said he has “a lot to work on and there were a lot of small mistakes, but at the same time it was a strong way to start.
“Any score above 80 is fantastic, and now I’m looking forward to the free skate and trying to show my best there,” Weir said.
Third place in the men’s short program belonged to Takahiko Kozuka of Japan, who scored an 80.10. Fourth place was Kevin Reynolds of Canada at 67.18.
The third American in the men’s program was Adam Rippon, who stands eighth at 59.60.
Savchenko and Szolkowy, the defending world champions, were plainly disappointed by their showing in the pairs short program. Likewise, Mukhortova and Trankov seemed surprised and thrilled to hold the top spot.
“Today we did not skate bad,” said Trankov, who finished seventh with Mukhortova at the 2008 world championships. “I know we can skate good. But when our coach said you (won) the short program, it was a big shock to us. Because Aliona and Robin, they are the world champions.
“For sure, they were the favorites,” he said. “But we were just doing our work.”
Of course, no country in the world has dominated pairs skating over the years more than Russia, and before that the Soviet Union. Since 1965, skaters from that country have won 32 of 44 world championships.
Which might have something to do with their success, Trankov acknowledged.
“First, we were born in Russian and we have it in the blood,” he said. “Second, we have a good coach (Oleg Vasiliev, who won an Olympic gold medal in pairs skating in 1984). It’s no secret, we follow him and we do what he says every day.”
Seated nearby during a post-program press conference at Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center, Savchenko and Szolkowy listened with grim expressions.
“Like Maxim said, we are the world champions,” Szolkowy said. “But we also are humans. And that’s what happened tonight. Side by side jumps is normally something we can do. I don’t know why, but my body was on the ice, but my head was somewhere, I don’t know where.”
The Russian and German pairs were clearly the class of the field on Friday night. The third-place team after the pairs short program, Americans Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, were well back with a score of 57.02, due in part to a fall by McLaughlin on a throw triple toe loop.
“I think I just got a little frantic going into it and didn’t get enough push,” said McLaughlin, who is from Los Angeles and trains with Brubaker, a St. Louis native, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Otherwise, she said, “I thought it went pretty well. We had some bobbles, but I thought overall the presentation was good. And the crowd loved us. It was really fun to be out there. They were really supportive and it was really fun to play to them.”
McLaughlin and Brubaker skated two summer competitions, “and this was definitely a step better than what it was during the summer,” Brubaker said. “It’s still early in the season, and our biggest goal is getting to the (Grand Prix) final and being prepared for that and the last half of the season. So we’re definitely on the right track to getting where we want to be.”
“We really want to take our skating to the next level so we can be competitive with teams from around the world,” he added.
Two other American teams competed Friday, but both had programs hampered by falls. Rene Inoue and John Baldwin are fifth after the short program with a score of 50.00, and Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin are sixth at 48.40.
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