2013 U.S. Champs Women's SP | Ashley Wagner's firmly in control, leads at Nationals

Australian/American icenetwork coverage (commentators: Mark Mancuso, Tonia Kwiatkowski)
The 2013 U.S. Figure Skating Championships was held at the CenturyLink Center Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska on January 19–27, 2013. Ladies/Women's short program (SP) performances shown here marked with (^) below:
Rank Name Total points SP^ FS
1 Ashley Wagner 188.84 1 67.57^ 2 121.27
2 Gracie Gold 186.57 9 54.08^ 1 132.49
3 Agnes Zawadzki 179.63 2 65.31^ 7 114.32
4 Courtney Hicks 177.92 4 59.72^ 3 118.20
5 Christina Gao 176.28 5 58.74^ 4 117.54
6 Yasmin Siraj 175.07 6 57.88^ 5 117.19
7 Mirai Nagasu 173.75 3 64.39^ 11 109.36
8 Samantha Cesario 170.15 7 55.74^ 6 114.41
10 Hannah Miller 164.68 8 54.47^ 10 110.21
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(excerpts from Sports Illustrated, full read: https://www.si.com/more-sports/2013/0... ) Wagner firmly in control at U.S. skating nationals (Jan 24, 2013)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Ashley Wagner was a wreck.

She hadn't found a random sparkle, one of her pre-competition superstitions. She couldn't find her mom in the crowd, another superstition. And then a song she absolutely hates began playing, and she was sure her entire U.S. Figure Skating Championships was about to go up in flames.

Not even close.

With an elegant, polished performance Thursday night, Wagner showed she has the makings of the steady star that American skating has been craving since Michelle Kwan hung up her skates. Wagner won the short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, her score of 67.57 points giving her a two-point lead going into Saturday's free skate.

"I did exactly what I came here and planned on doing,'' Wagner said. "I skated solid. I felt I really owned every single jump, spin, element I had in the program.''

Agnes Zawadzki was second, just ahead of 2008 U.S. champion Mirai Nagasu.

"She fights well,'' Nicks said. "Things don't always go well out there and you have to have someone who's going to go out and fight.''

Wearing a gorgeous burgundy dress with a dark underskirt, Wagner had the audience mesmerized from the time she stepped on the ice. No one would have had a clue she had all those negative thoughts racing through her head, so great was the command with which she skated. The arena fell completely silent, as if fans were afraid to speak or even breathe for fear they might miss something.

Though she didn't do a triple-triple combination like Zawadzki or Nagasu, all of her jumps were done with such high quality they seemed that much better. And her spins are, simply exquisite. They were so perfectly centered she may as well have been using a protractor.

When she finished, she gave a satisfied nod and small clap of her hands before breaking into a wide grin.

"Nationals is one of my favorite competitions,'' Wagner said. "(But) coming in, I was definitely a little bit nervous. No one can really prepare you for how it feels to come in as the past year's champion.''

But Wagner wears the mantle well.

"She knew she had to go out there and do it, and she went out and did it,'' Nicks said. "It's not always what you do, but how you do it.''

Zawadzki, who won last year's short program with a record U.S. score, was left to skate. But any chance she had of passing Wagner ended when she tumbled to the ice on her double axel.

Still, with the rest of her program packed with power, she had enough to move ahead of Nagasu. She really should have gotten clearance from an air traffic controller she had so much distance on her triple toe loop-triple toe loop combo, and her speed would impress any sprinter.

After last year, however, Nagasu is quite happy with where she is.

Her jumps were done with great speed and control, and she had one of the few clean triple-triple combinations of the night. Her spins were breathtaking for their intricacy and elegance, and even Gumby would be a little green(er) at her flexibility. But what really set her program apart was how seamless it was, one element flowing into another so that it was impossible to tell what was athletics and what was art.

"Instead of putting a lot of importance on placing and skating, where I place, we've been working to improve my skating and overall my look,'' Nagasu said. ``It's not just about the placements. So I don't feel as much pressure on that end, and hopefully we can just improve from here.''
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further read via Golden Skate (https://www.goldenskate.com/wagner-le... )
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thanks to Kim!