Above: The junior women's podium at the 2024 Excel National Final and Festival. Photo credit KrPhotogs Photography.
The 2024 Excel National Final and Festival concluded Sunday with over 900 skaters traveling back to their home rinks with new knowledge and experience gained at this year’s event, both on and off the ice.
Participants were given the opportunity to skate in a competitive environment and learn from some of Team USA’s top athletes. Several events at this year’s National Excel Final finished in close races, demonstrating a bright future for the development pipeline.
Below are the results from the senior, junior and novice events of the Excel National Final.
Senior Women
Amelie Wilson-Bivera took home the gold medal in the senior women’s free skate event, skating to “The Princess Diaries Waltz” from The Princess Diaries and excerpts from Cinderella. She was the only skater to attempt a double Axel-double Axel sequence in this event and received Level 4 distinctions on all three of her spins to secure the top step of the podium, tallying a total score of 81.34.
Cali Roloson finished with silver and a score of 79.49. Her performance to a medley of songs from the Divergent soundtrack was highlighted by a double Lutz-double toe loop-double loop combination.
Taking bronze and only 0.73 points behind Roloson with a score of 78.76 was Devyn DeLaura. DeLaura tallied 5.04 points for a double Lutz-double loop-single Axel sequence, which was the highest scoring element of her program.
Katia Kochengina secured pewter with 78.18 points.
Senior Men
Tongxi Liu was victorious by nearly 11 points in the senior men’s free skate, collecting a score of 69.17. Performing to “Libertango” and “Mumuki” by Yo-Yo Ma, Liu opened with a double flip-single Axel sequence. Earning positive grades of execution on all but one element, he concluded with two of his highest-scoring elements, a flying change of foot combination spin followed by a flying sit spin.
Standing next to Liu on the podium with the silver was Sean Yu. His highest-scoring element of 3.33 points was awarded for his choreographic sequence. In total, Yu tallied a score of 57.50 for his performance to “Pale Yellow” by Woodkid.
Junior Women
Sabrina Weiler won gold in the junior women’s event with a score of 71.21. Skating to music from Don Quixote, the highest element score of her program came from a double flip-double toe loop-double loop combination worth 4.39 points. Despite earning the third-highest element score of the event, Weiler edged out the competition thanks to a strong component score of 40.48.
In a close race for the top spot, Adelyn Hoo finished less than half of a point behind Weiler, tallying 70.75 points to clinch silver. Achieving the highest total element score of the event with 33.79 points, Hoo concluded her program strong with a flying change of foot combination spin worth 4.32 points and received positive grades of execution on 10 of her 11 elements.
Securing bronze was Deanna Panin with 69.17 points. Panin skated to Vivaldi's "Seasons" performed by Vanessa Mae to cement her spot on the podium. Panin collected 4.50 points for her choreographic sequence leading into the second half of her program, which was the highest scoring element of the event.
Megha Siripurapu clinched pewter with a score of 68.81. Siripurapu earned the highest total component score of the event with 41.17 points allotted.
Junior Men
Stan Ganchevskiy skated to gold with his 63.36-point performance to “Wild Side” by Roberto Cacciapaglia. The highlight of his program was a flying change of foot combination spin, which was awarded 4.08 points by the judges.
Ganchevskiy also received over four points for each program component: composition, presentation and skating skills.
Joining Ganchevskiy on the podium with the silver medal was Brian Crimy. Crimy came out strong with a double Salchow-double loop to open his program set to “Kakyoin Theme” by Friedrich Habetler. His free skate collected a total of 52.64 points.
Novice Women
In a competition where the top four skaters were only separated by 1.62 points, Natalie Johnson won gold with a score of 61.61. Dorothy Zhang took home silver with a score of 61.60, only 0.01 points behind Johnson. Audra Yap clinched bronze with a score of 61.21 and Nahono Yanagi rounded out the podium with 59.99 points.
Putting together a strong showing of artistry and technical skill, Johnson skated to “Epilogue” from The Theory of Everything. Her double flip-double toe loop added 4.03 points to her event-winning total element score of 28.17.
Highlighting Zhang’s performance was a double Lutz-double toe loop-single Axel sequence. Zhang also earned the highest component score for skating skills of the event with 4.58 points. Zhang clinched a higher component score than Johnson with 34.26 points, but finished 0.33 points behind her in the total element score.
Performing to “The Giving” by Michael W. Smith, Yap’s bronze medal performance was highlighted by a double flip-double toe loop-single Axel sequence in the second half of her program that was awarded nearly 5 points.
Novice Men
Michael Khavin dominated the novice men’s event, winning gold by more than 11 points with 64.54 points overall. While skating to a remix of Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and “Billie Jean,” Khavin executed a double Lutz-double toe loop-single Axel sequence as the second element of his program. He went on to secure positive levels of GOE on every element.
Khavin’s artistry also shined during his program, earning the highest component score of the competition with 35.00 points.
Conner Sorbo took home silver and a score of 53.18. His double Lutz-single Axel-single Axel sequence followed by a double flip-double toe loop collected 8.14 points toward his overall score.
Cole Rocco earned bronze, receiving 49.71 points. Rocco opened and closed his performance with his strongest elements, a double Salchow-single toe loop- double toe loop combination and change of foot combination spin, respectively.
Rhett Hounsell clinched the final spot on the podium, scoring 49.08 points overall.
For full results from the 2024 Excel National Final and Festival, click here. Learn more about U.S. Figure Skating's Excel program here.
