We saw many noivce dancers! Three or four flights or novice free dances and ate lunch during abour three hours worth of novice compulsory dance. We thought that the US would be hard pressed to come up with so many novices for a competition.

Seven novice pairs for the short but only three for the long. The double lutz caused some troubles for all but Purdy/MacGuire. Armstrong/Veilleux had good speed and change of positions on the lift. Toombs/Johnson had a great double twist and gorgeous lift with a flip out. Purdy/MacGuire won the long but had a terrible fall out of a hip lift with her landing basically on her head. Unbelievably, they carried on to the end. They did have the best speed and flow of the three despite some rough moments.

Juniors

We saw NO junior ladies, which was probablay okay,considering the men were less than inspiring. Some just lacked good basic skating but the rest were mostly just very inconsistent. Most were trying the triple lutz but the results were not good. I counted one clean one, by the most improved skater by far, Marc-Olivier Bossé. Far less gawky than last year and a very commanding prescence in the omniprescent tango long program. Alexandré Hamel looked to be having troubles with his long legs, that might even be longer than last year. He skated better than in Lake Placid but he'll have a hard road to qualify for Nationals. Matt Bueno still has nice feet but I wasn't wild about his hard rock program. He could do something with more sensitivity to the music and it would be very interesting. Matt McMurdo still has some interesting spin positions including a layback and half-Beillman. We saw the return of Rob Davison to singles competition (he and Kerri also competed junior pairs and I think this was a bit of a lark.) He wore vinyl pants in the same school as the Kurt Brickhouse and elicited a yell of "Rob Fancy-Pants" from a teammate. He was ably coached by Bruno Marcotte, who seemed to be having a great deal of fun.

In junior pairs, Kerri Thompson and Rob Davison were trying triple toes and seem to be fairly close on them but she fell on it in the short. They didn't perform the long here. Toombs/Johnson did the Novice Pairs short but the junior long (quite confusing) while O'Reilly/Moellenkamp did the junior long and the senior short. Aeh, where was I? Oh, yes, junior pairs short. Most tried the double axel with limited success. Montgomery and Dean stepped out of triple sals. I also liked their spins. Gerrity/Hetu mistimed but landed double lutzes. The most amusing moment in junior pairs short was the second flight, 4 teams coached only by Richard Gauthier.

In the long, there were mostly impressive falls. O'Reilly/Moellenkamp had falls on triple toe, throw triple sal, double axel, double lutz, the second throw (which must have been a loop) and he fell after the dismount of a lift. Ouch. Toombs/Johnson has a slightly better time of it but fell on the throw triple sal. I still liked Montgomery/Dean's spin unison but a fall on throw triple sal, singled throw axel and a lift that went up badly and came down early marred the performance. Finally, Gerrity/Hetu had some really hard falls by him that took enough out of him that it looked like it was hard for him to lift her.

I saw one junior OD performed and all practiced and I did not enjoy it much. The latin combination with vocals has brought us something I should have expected but didn't; Ricky Martin. In the free dances I noted that Ackad/Rainville have gotten much smoother and faster. They used the same Arab dance as last year. MaCabbe/Innes have a cool and difficult blues number. Allard/Cosenza did not skate the same free dance as at Lake Placid. It was inspired by Dubruiel/Lauzon's Last Temptation of Christ, right down to the hairpiece and I loved it. They had one nasty fall but the rest of the dance was well skated.

Senior Men

Small fields for the senior men, three for the short, four for the long. Jeffrey Buttle won the short but popped his triple axel attempt. I can scarcely recognize him as the same skater from 98 juniors he has really metamorphisized to quite an elegant and lovely skater. He reminds me a touch of Jeff Langdon. Derek Schmidt fell on the quad and popped his axel in the same short as last year for second, while Jeff Franklin fell on the axel and lutz and stepped out of the double axel in a very lackluster performance.

The long was won handily by Derek Schmidt with a slightly two footed but cleanly rotated quad toe and alot of fight in the program. Nice to see him have a good skate. Fedor's senior debut left much to be desired. Two triple axel attempts were underotated and a few triples but a lackluster performance and a classical medley program. Jeffrey Buttle skated his Rachmaninoff program with some scaled down triples but a nice triple lutz. Once again, Jeff Franklin had a dissapointing skate. He landed a lutz and a toe but popped or doubled everything else. He also wore his practice clothes for both programs and simply didn't seem prepared to skate.

Senior Ladies

Senior Ladies was a packed field; Angie Derochie, Annie Bellemare, Annie Bazinet, Melanie LeBlanc, and Audrey Thibualt. Angela Derochie had a nightmare short program, popping everything. I liked the David Wilson program to Summertime and I think I'll love it clean. Annie Bellemare had a new short to jazzy music that really suited her. She seems to have completely conquered her nerve problems and was skating very confidently. Annie Bazinet, what can I say? I had almost forgotten what a lovely skater she is. She has some soft lyrical music that might have been deadly on any other skater but she made it sing. She almost had the triple lutz and also got a huge round of applause from the audience. Amelie Sabatier skated the same short as last year and was very close on the lutz as well. In a sign of the times, nearly every lady tried a triple lutz in the short. Most fell but a big change from last year.

I was unimpressed with Bellemare's rather bland choice of music and choreography to My Fair Lady. Her long to Man in the Iron Mask last year seemed like a better choice for her. I liked Angela's tango program, although she was still not skating very well. Annie Bazinet had an Arab inspired number and completely fell apart. I liked the program but it was hard to see what is in it when she falls so much. The senior ladies long was mostly a continuation of the fall fest of the junior and senior men before. Bellemare crashed on a flip and lutz. There were a large number of very painful looking falls. Sabatier couldn't land a triple in a Latin program and the rest of the field was similiar.

Senior Pairs

Senior pairs short was a blockbuster. Sale/Pelletier debuted their new tango short program. Very humourous and the usual great skating, although they choose to double the toes. The big suprise was the new partership of LaChapelle and Marcotte, which has gelled very quickly. They landed the triple toes, which made Bruno extremely happpy for the rest of the program and they seem to be a good match for each other. The same cannot be said of Sawkins/Hawse, who seemed to be having all kinds of troubles, including both falling on the triple toes. Larievie/Fasutino had the same short to the Mission and skated very nicely with a great throw triple loop. Bylow/Pollard were improved but not so much as Langlois/Archetto. Both had troubles with the triple toe but Langlois/Archetto's lift was spectacular (my notes say She/Zhao-like). O'Reilly/Mollenkamp looked a bit lost in seniors.

More bad pairs falls continued into seniors. Chad Hawse dropped Jessica Sawkins hard out of a lift. Bylow/Pollard had a nasty fall in warmup when he tripped and fell turning around on the twist and she came crashing to the ice. He helped her up and brought her to the exit but she refused to leave the ice and shook it off to continue skating. However, it showed in the front of the program, with falls on the sbs and throw jump. She recovered to land a throw triple loop but they just seemd rattled. Annabelle Langlois landed a nice triple toe and fought for the rest of the program. Fall on a throw sal but the rest well done. You can see that they have the same coach as Brassuer/Eisler with some great lifts. They ended with a neat pull ina into death spiral. Larievre/Faustino were very uneven; falls on the jumps but wonderful lifts. She gutted out both throw landings.

Senior Dance

The biggest suprise was Key and Smith. They were a generic but serviceable team last year with an inoffensive Latin program. This year they have a knock out program to Allegria (with words) full of great lifts and footwork and speed. I can't believe is the same team. He is also wearing tights and seems to be sporting a hopeful Gwendal hair cut (or lack of). The other moved up juniors of Chalifoux/Turpin were about the same as last year. Balkwill/van Lueven had a free to Ave Maria that was smooth but looked like a pro program.

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