{"id":14385,"date":"2019-01-26T09:45:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T14:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/?p=14385"},"modified":"2019-02-18T09:02:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T14:02:50","slug":"alysa-liu-crowned-youngest-ever-u-s-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/2019\/01\/26\/alysa-liu-crowned-youngest-ever-u-s-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Alysa Liu crowned youngest-ever U.S. Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maura Sullivan Hill, Team FSO staff writer
\nHeader photo by Robin Ritoss<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DETROIT, MI–Alysa Liu\u2019s head barely reached the microphone on the table in front of her as she fielded questions from the media after becoming the youngest skater ever to win the ladies event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Jan 25 in Detroit.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The 13-year-old had just made history by landing two triple axels\u2014one in combination with a double toe loop\u2014in her free skate. She\u2019d also landed one in the short program a day earlier. Liu is the first American woman to land three triple axels in a competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But she is also a middle schooler who said she likes to ride her bike and play tag with her siblings in her hometown of Oakland, California. Too young to go to the World Championships, too young even for this year\u2019s World Junior Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Liu sees this as a positive. \u201cI\u2019m not too worried about that part, because I get more time to work on my jumps, skating skills, [and] spins,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In her senior debut, Liu put on quite the display of jumps, skating skills, and spins, earning 217.51 points en route to the title.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy with the score. I was just happy I beat my personal record and did a clean long program,\u201d Liu said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Defending U.S. champion Bradie Tennell struggled on her usually rock-solid jumps in the free skate, stepping out of the second half of her opening triple lutz-triple loop combination and falling on a second triple lutz later in the program. The 2.71-point lead that she had after a commanding short program\u2014which set a new U.S. Championships record of 76.60 points\u2014wasn\u2019t enough to hold off Liu.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it wasn\u2019t my best skate. And I\u2019m disappointed, but there is always something to be learned from skates like this, so I\u2019m excited to get back home and work harder than ever to fix what I made mistakes on,\u201d Tennell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2017 U.S. bronze medalist Mariah Bell skated a nearly-clean program, but for a fall on a triple lutz that was supposed to be a triple lutz-double toe-double loop combination. She rallied after the fall for a clean triple flip, and then tacked on the double toe-double loop to her final lutz late in the program. Bell was a close second to Liu in the free skate, only 1.52 points behind. She led the field in program components in the free skate, with 69.99 points.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cOther than the fall, I had a really great time and I always enjoy competing at Nationals,\u201d Bell said. Looking ahead to the rest of the season, she plans on \u201cgoing back home and working, taking the programs that I did here, figuring out where I can be better. Focusing on myself is always what seems to work for me\u2014focusing on being the best version and best skater I can be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hanna Harrell earned the pewter medal in her senior debut. The 15-year-old from Plano, Texas, landed a triple lutz-triple toe loop combination that earned positive GOE in both segments of the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI am really excited about how I did, because this is my first years in seniors. I thought it would be similar to juniors since it\u2019s in the arena, but to me it was completely different,\u201d Harrell said. \u201cIt was such a great experience. The crowd was really supportive and I felt confident in myself because I’ve been working really hard. I just knew I could do my jumps and I just needed to focus on myself. I\u2019m really excited about how I did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the night may have belonged to Liu, fifth\u00a0<\/span>place finisher Ting Cui also won the hearts of the Detroit crowd. She earned the only other standing ovation of the night with a seven-triple performance, including a triple lutz-triple toe and a slightly underrotated triple flip-euler-triple salchow. It was a redemptive performance after she fell twice and failed to complete a combination in the short program, landing in 12<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> place.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI could just feel the energy of the crowd as I was finishing [the long program],\u201d Cui said. \u201cI was just so happy. And people were on their feet, too, which was really amazing. I was so touched that there were so many supporters out there cheering me on, and that was just such an incredible feeling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2019 World Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mariah Bell
\nBradie Tennell<\/p>\n

Alternate 1 \u2013 Ting Cui
\nAlternate 2 \u2013 Megan Wessenberg
\nAlternate 3 \u2013 Starr Andrews<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2019 Four Continents Championships<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mariah Bell
\nTing Cui
\nBradie Tennell<\/p>\n

Alternate 1 \u2013 Megan Wessenberg
\nAlternate 2 \u2013 Starr Andrews
\nAlternate 3 \u2013 Amber Glenn<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2019 U.S. World Junior Team Camp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starr Andrews
\nTing Cui
\nHanna Harrell
\nGabriella Izzo
\nEmmy Ma
\nAudrey Shin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alysa Liu\u2019s head barely reached the microphone on the table in front of her as she fielded questions from the media after becoming the youngest skater ever to win the ladies event at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Jan 25 in Detroit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14385"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14398,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14385\/revisions\/14398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figureskatersonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}