US Figure Skating Championships 2015: Day 7 Results and Reaction

Only two days remain in the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships after Friday's action.

The junior portion of the championships wrapped up on what was Day 7 in Greensboro, North Carolina, with winners declared in the junior men's, dance and ladies' competitions.

After building a nearly 11-point lead following the short programs, Andrew Torgashev didn't rest on his laurels and instead lapped the competition with a brilliant 149.63 in his free skate. He finished with a final score of 225.24, which set a record, per U.S. Figure Skating:

"I was a bit surprised myself, but then I thought, why do I have to be surprised?" said Torgashev after his victory, per Craig Davis of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "I've been doing that in practice for the last four weeks."

The battle for second place was rather close, with Kevin Shum beating out Paolo Borromeo and Aleksei Krasnozhon by 3.06 and 3.14 points, respectively.

Place	Skater	Final Score
1st	Andrew Torgashev	225.34
2nd	Kevin Shum	193.36
3rd	Paolo Borromeo	190.30
4th	Aleksei Krasnozhon	190.22

Junior dance was the next competition on the docket, and the team of Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter reigned supreme. They had been in first place after the short dance portion and failed to cede their advantage, posting the only score above 90 in Friday's free dance.

McNamara and Carpenter began their free dance with a circular step sequence 3, which held a base value of 7.10 and earned a 2.20 grade of execution. With that, they laid down a marker to the rest of the opposition.

The pair wrapped up the event with a combined score of 155.39. The brother-sister duo of Rachel and Michael Parsons finished in second place at 144.98. Behind them were Elliana Pogrebinsky and Alex Benoit in third and Holly Moore and Daniel Klaber in fourth.

Place	Team	Final Score
1st	Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter	155.39
2nd	Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons	144.98
3rd	Elliana Pogrebinsky and Alex Benoit	141.55
4th	Holly Moore and Daniel Klaber	133.07

In Friday's final junior event, Bradie Tennell won first place in the junior ladies' portion. She had few errors in what was largely a strong free skate routine and compiled a total score of 176.36. Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times noted how Tennell's success continues what is a growing trend among Chicago-based skaters:

Tennell met reigning U.S. champion Gracie Gold after her triumph, per Ice Network:

Olivia Serafini started the day in third place but ended it in second after a strong free skate. She posted the second-highest score on Friday (106.76), finishing with an even 160.00 for the competition as a whole. Vivian Le, meanwhile, was seventh and fifth, respectively, in the two disciplines but managed a third-place showing. Elena Taylor came in at fourth.

Paige Rydberg had a massive reversal of fortunes. After a second-place short program, she could only muster an 80.65 on Friday and fell to eighth overall.

Place	Skater	Final Score
1st	Bradie Tennell	176.36
2nd	Olivia Serafini	160.00
3rd	Vivian Le	148.17
4th	Elena Taylor	145.31

In the first of two championship competitions, Madison Chock and Evan Bates own a slight 0.11-point edge over Maia and Alex Shibutani in ice dancing. Tara Wellman was impressed with how Chock and Bates added some nice tweaks to their routine since December's Grand Prix Final:

"As we come into the second half of the season, it's time to show we've progressed, that the program has developed, and we felt like to do that we needed to make some changes," Bates said after the short dance, per The Associated Press, via ESPN.com.

With Meryl Davis and Charlie White taking a yearlong break, this year's field is pretty open. It's a great chance for Chock and Bates—last year's silver medalists—or the Shibutanis—last year's bronze medalists—to taste their first gold medals at the U.S. championships.

Right now, it looks to be a two-horse race. The Shibutanis own an eight-point lead over Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, who sit in third. That gulf is only likely to grow in the free dance.

Place	Team	Score
1	Madison Chock and Evan Bates	73.95
2	Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani	73.84
3	Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue	65.43
4	Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker	63.95
5	Stasia Cannuscio and Colin McManus	61.95
6	Alexandra Aldridge and Daniel Eaton	57.74
7	Danielle Gamelin and Alexander Gamelin	52.53
8	Anastasia Olson and Ian Lorello	51.94
9	Charlotte Maxwell and Ryan Devereaux	50.94
10	Ginna Hoptman and Pavel Filchenkov	47.87

Jason Brown entered the men's short program with weighty expectations. Given Jeremy Abbott's age and rather poor run heading into the championships, most feel the 20-year-old is ready to take the baton as the United States' best male figure skater.

With his performance on Friday night, the hype might not be unfounded. Brown blew the Greensboro Coliseum spectators away, leading the field with a 93.36. Even he seemed taken aback by his impressive score:

Hersh isn't sure that anybody will be able to top Brown in the free skate on Sunday:

Joshua Farris will be best positioned to do so. Farris has never finished higher than fourth at the U.S. championships since moving up from the junior division, but he's got a great chance of doing so over the weekend.

At 90.40, Farris is within striking distance of Brown, but it will take a massive performance to topple the reigning silver medalist.

Speaking of Abbott, he's in third place after scoring an 89.93. 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi praised Abbott for his performance:

Much like Farris, he'll need to come up with something special, and likely hope that Brown slips up if he has any chance at topping the standings.

Place	Skater	Score
1	Jason Brown	93.36
2	Joshua Farris	90.40
3	Jeremy Abbott	89.93
4	Max Aaron	85.78
5	Adam Rippon	84.71
6	Ross Miner	82.25
7	Richard Dornbush	79.24
8	Nathan Chen	76.20
9	Grant Hochstein	75.70
10	Douglas Razzano	74.01

Note: You can view the full scores from every event on IceNetwork.com.