US Figure Skating Championships 2019: Final Results for Saturday Events

The 2019 U.S. Figure Skating Championships neared an end Saturday at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, with the latest championship events being held.

The pairs free skate, the men's short program and free dance took center stage on the ice as the weekend heated up.

Below is a look at the standings from Saturday's competitions as well as a recap of the action.

Saturday Results

Men's Free Skate Championship

1. Nathan Chen, 113.42

2. Jason Brown, 100.52

3. Vincent Zhou, 100.25

4. Tomoki Hiwatashi, 84.05

5. Aleksei Krasnozhon, 82.53

6. Timothy Dolensky, 81.10

7. Sean Rabbitt, 79.66

8. Camden Pulkinen, 78.39

9. Andrew Torgashev, 76.95

10. Jimmy Ma, 74.84

11. Alexander Johnson, 74.07

12. Kevin Shum, 71.13 

13. Emmanuel Savary, 69.89

14. Jordan Moeller, 66.15

15. William Hubbart, 65.34

16. Daniel Kulenkamp, 64.64

17. Sebastien Payannet, 61.55

18. Tony Lu, 59.81

19. Ben Jalovick, 58.51

20. Andrew Austin, 45.68

*Leaderboard via USFigureSkating.org 

Pair Free Skate Championship

1. Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc (141.89 free skate; 212.36 total score)

2. Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier (133.32; 201.64)

3. Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Nathan Bartholomay (131.74; 199.92)

4. Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea (126.81; 198.64)

5. Jessica Calalang and Brian Johnson (120.48; 183.42)

6. Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov (116.21; 182.42)

7. Alexa Knierim and Christopher Knierim (109.86; 171.42)

8. Nica Digerness and Danny Neudecker (104.79; 163.63)

9. Erika Smith and AJ Reiss (106.27; 162.52)

10. Winter Deardorff and Max Settlage (101.66; 154.80)

11. Chelsea Liu and Ian Meyh (95.25; 154.69)

12. Allison Timlen and Justin Highgate-Brutman (97.85; 153.12)

13. Olivia Serafini and Mervin Tran (86.63; 137.95)

*Leaderboard via USFigureSkating.org 

Championship Dance

1. Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (131.32 free dance; 215.88 total score)

2. Madison Chock and Evan Bates (129.13; 211.52)

3. Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker (120.18; 196.95)

4. Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter (116.68; 191.10)

5. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko (114.78; 190.01)

6. Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons (97.74; 170.26)

7. Karina Manta and Joseph Johnson (104.81; 159.97)

8. Lydia Erdman and Yuri Vlasenko (78.93; 124.92)

9. Elicia Reynolds and Stephen Reynolds (72.53; 111.69)

10. Nicole Takahashi and Oleg Altukhov (59.38; 91.31)

11. Alannah Binotto and Shiloh Judd (55.77; 90.64)

12. Bailey Melton and Ryan O'Donnell (51.93; 88.53)

*Leaderboard via USFigureSkating.org 

Saturday Recap

Only the free skating session stands between Nathan Chen and a three-peat.

Chen ends the short program portion atop the leaderboard after recording a score of 113.42 (65.05 technical elements, 48.37 program components) on Saturday.

Per Jackson Ultima, the Little Caesars Arena crowd rewarded Chen with a standing ovation:

His routine included a triple axel, a quad flip and quad toe loop plus triple toe loop. Combine those elements along with a deduction-free performance and the score reflects a first-place skater. All of that put the 19-year-old more than 10 points ahead of his next closest competitor, as Jason Brown sits in seconds at 100.52.

Vincent Zhou (100.25) joined Chen and Brown as the only skaters to eclipse the century mark on Saturday.

In his two previous championships, Chen put up scores of 106.39 and 104.45, respectively. Somehow, he managed to take his performance to an even higher level this time around.

Chen having the lead heading into the final stage is bad news for the rest of the field. He has absolutely dominated the free skate portion the past two years en route to victory, topping 210 points each time. Nobody else has recorded 185.60 points in the event during that span.

In the pairs championship, there was some movement on the leaderboard from the short program to free skate.

Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea held the lead after one event thanks to a 71.83 in the short program. However, their 126.81 in free skate Saturday was not quite enough to help the 2016 champs maintain their lead. Ultimately, they had to settle for fourth.

It appeared Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier were poised to win their second gold in three years. Their score of 133.32 in the free-skating portion made them the only pair to eclipse the 200-point mark for most of the day.

Notice the emphasis on most.

Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc were the last ones to take the ice, and they did so knowing that they needed 131-plus points to capture the top spot. Well, they did exactly that...and then some. Their 141.89 put them well above Denney and Frazier, giving Cain and LeDuc their first gold medal after back-to-back top-four finishes.

The reigning champs, Alexa Knierim and Christopher Knierim, found themselves off the podium back in seventh place after a pair of middle-of-the-pack performances. Their total score of 171.42 was a steep drop-off from their golden 206.60 performance a year ago.

The ice dance competition was effectively a two-team race thanks to the absence of Olympic bronze medalists Alex and Maia Shibutani, who are sitting out the entire season.

This left defending U.S. championship Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue as the favorites with Madison Chock and Evan Bates representing the top competition for the gold.

Hubbell and Donohue performed well enough in the Rhythm Dance portion to take the early lead, although they were still up only 2.23 points going into the second and final day of competition.

The duo from Lansing, Michigan needed a big effort in the free dance to clinch the win and they did just that while skating to Romeo and Juliet in a record-breaking showing.

Robert Samuels of the Washington Post provided his thoughts on the effort:

A strong technical performance earned them a 131.32, which was once again about two points better than Chock and Bates, who finished in second place. One of the best scores of all time at this event wasn't enough to earn gold.

Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker closed out a big week with a third-place finish.

Action will conclude Sunday with the men's free skate championship, which will get underway at 2 p.m. ET.