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On bad knee, Bradley puts on a show
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 13, 2006 by MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE
ST. LOUIS - Ryan Bradley missed last year's U.S. Championships with a broken arm. But after his exuberant short program, Bradley put both arms to work in a raise-the-roof gesture. Kissand-cry area? Try beamand-laugh.
Skating to music from "Zorba the Greek," Bradley, 22, pulled off a triple axel, then a triple flip/triple toe loop to place sixth going into Saturday's free skate. His score of 69.33 was a personal best in the new scoring system that will be used in next month's Olympics. It replaces the old 6.0 judging.
"The triple axel's been a jump that has kind of haunted me in the past," Bradley said. "I've never done a triple axel with a triple- triple in competition. This is the first time I've gone clean in both of those."
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Bradley is skating on torn meniscus in his right knee, suffered this summer, that awaits surgery.
He didn't skate in the 2005 nationals because he was sidelined for six months after breaking his arm in a Denver dodgeball tournament. He had to sleep in a reclining chair for months after being fitted for a hanging cast.
Colorado Springs' Ryan Jahnke, 27, is seventh, one spot behind Bradley, after succumbing to his nemesis, the triple axel and an unsteady landing on a triple flip.
Broadmoor club skater Parker Pennington is 10th. He lost points when he didn't land the first jump of a triple-triple cleanly. Still, he was satisfied. Pennington is the only skater to win national titles at four levels: juvenile, intermediate, novice and junior.
In the senior ladies competition Thursday night, Colorado Springs' Erica Archambault, 17, is in 13th place after the short program. The free skate is Saturday night.
Junior pairs out of medals
Broadmoor Skating Club junior Aaryn Smith and Will Chitwood fell one spot to finish seventh in junior pairs after a "disappointing" free skate Thursday afternoon.
Kendra Moyle and Andy Seitz, who train in Michigan, won the competition.
Smith, 15, a sophomore at Cheyenne Mountain High School, fell on a throw and again on a side-by-side lutz. Smith and Chitwood, a freshman part-timer at Colorado-Colorado Springs, will move up to the senior level next year.
Claire Davis and Nathan Miller, the 2005 national novice champions, also dropped one place, to ninth, after the free skate. A herniated disc and inflammation suffered by Davis kept them off the ice for three months last year.
Thursday, Davis fell hard on her right side on the second element, a throw triple move.
Meeran Trombley and Nathan Hess wound up 15th. Trombley was not injured after she fell on a lift. They've skated together only six months.
Nuss still celebrating
Days after skater Jon Nuss of Colorado Springs won the novice pairs title with Denver's Jessica Rose Paetsch here, you could still hear the smile in his voice.
The pair -- Nuss is 18, Paetsch is 12 -- have been skating together at World Arena Ice Hall just eight months. They're coached by Dalilah Sappenfield.
"Our goal was just to be in the top three," Nuss said. "I was just so happy."
Nuss had to be coaxed into trying pairs again after years of skating with his sister, Kristin. When she stopped skating, he switched to singles and was good enough to finish sixth at nationals in novice men, but then he hit a wall.
He wasn't doing well, he said.
Sappenfield kept bugging him to check out Paetsch. Finally Nuss relented.
"I'm much more comfortable skating now," he said. "I feel a lot happier on the ice, I'm more confident in myself."
Paetsch weighs just 60 pounds and is about 4-foot-7. She's easy to throw, Nuss said.
"She's a little daredevil," said Sappenfield. "She isn't afraid of anything."
The pair had a narrow lead after the short program and added to it in the free skate.
Copyright 2006
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