Photo credit Getty Images
By Abby Farrell
The United States stood on top of the podium in the ice dance and men’s events with personal best scores across the board at the final Junior Grand Prix event of the season, held Oct. 9-11 in the United Arab Emirates.
Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukhin clinched their second gold medal of the season and fourth career Junior Grand Prix podium finish in ice dance, while Lucius Kazanecki earned his second medal of the season and first career JGP gold in the men’s discipline.
As a result of their golds, Aboian and Veselukhin and Kazanecki officially punched their ticket to the Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, Japan, Dec. 4-7. Joining them will be a second U.S. entry in ice dance, Jasmine Robertson and Chase Rohner.
Aboian and Veselukhin captured first place with an international personal best total score of 167.11 — more than nine points ahead of second place — and extended their streak of medaling at every Junior Grand Prix event they have competed in.
The Connecticut-based team’s rhythm dance to “Vogue” by Madonna featured a 9.92-point midline step sequence, which earned the highest points of any element in the event. They also earned Level 4 marks for their pattern dance, sequential twizzles and rotational lift for a personal best score of 66.70.
Leading the field going into the free dance, the 2025 U.S. junior champions’ free dance to "Hymnus Orbis,” “Salvation For a Proud Nation” and “Surrender to Hope” by Trailerhead was highlighted by a Level 4 combination lift, which was the top-scoring element of the competition at 13.54 points. As the only team to score over 10 points on two elements, they also collected 10.18 points for their diagonal step sequence. They tallied a personal best free dance score of 100.41, marking the first time the duo has surpassed the 100-point mark in the free dance.
Competing internationally at the junior level for the first time, fellow ice dancers Clara Fugate and Warren Fugate finished seventh with 127.86 points in total.
Their rhythm dance to "Cotton Eyed Joe" by Rednex and "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn generated a score of 51.56.
In the free dance, the sibling duo executed a combination lift that garnered 11.11 points for a personal best free dance score of 76.30.
In the men’s event, Kazanecki claimed the top step for the first time thanks to personal best scores in all three segments.
The 2024 U.S. junior men’s champion got off to a strong start in the short program. His skate set to "Interstellar" by Hans Zimmer and Dorian Marko earned positive grades of execution on every element, including a triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination and a triple Axel that tallied 11.45 and 9.26 points, respectively. His program then concluded with two Level 4 spins for a segment score of 73.01.
Sitting just outside of the top three after the short program, Kazanecki came out of the gate in his free skate to "Adios Nonino" by Forever Tango with a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination worth 15.19 followed by a quadruple toe that collected 8.41 points. He was the only athlete to attempt a quadruple jump. He also executed a triple Lutz-triple toe combination and a triple flip-double Axel-double Axel sequence in the second half of the program that both scored double-digit points for a personal best free skate of 146.62, beating his previous best score by more than 14 points.
In total, Kazanecki scored 219.63 points to secure the win by a margin of nearly four points.
In the women’s event, Rachel Samiri and Alayna Coats represented the United States in the Junior Grand Prix Series for the first time.
Samiri earned a top-10 finish, placing eighth with a personal best total score of 162.50. Scoring 52.41 points in the short program, Samiri then moved up five spots on day two. Her free skate score of 110.09 points beat her previous personal best by 9.73 points.
Joining Samiri, Coats finished in 13th with personal best short program and total scores of 47.54 and 157.26 points, respectively. In the free skate, Coats jumped up 10 spots into eighth place with a score of 109.72.
For full results from Junior Grand Prix UAE, visit the 2025 Junior Grand Prix Series Competition Central.
