Madison Chock and Evan Bates finished fifth, and Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker are 15th.
Hubbell and Donohue earned a personal best 80.42 points to finish second. They trail the French tandem of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron by just over three points.
“We’re overjoyed honestly,” Donohue said. “This performance is everything we’ve been wanting to put out all season. It’s a culmination of a lot of hard work and creative intelligence from [Marie France Dubreuil] and [Patrice Lauzon]. Our dedication showed through on the ice today and we’re really proud of it.”
Madison Chock and Evan Bates earned a season best 75.66 points and are in fifth place.
“It felt great,” Chock said. “We had a lot of fun out there. This was definitely our best performance all year so it’s really nice to cap off the end of the season this way.”
Kaitlyn Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker are 15th with 63.48 points. Hawayek had a fluke fall midway through the program.
“We weren’t nervous at all,” Hawayek said. “Both of us felt really great heading into the competition. Warm-ups, practices and everything have been great. Unfortunately, my blade hit something on the ice and it just stopped so I got up and kept going. I was really proud of the way that we performed after that.”
The Canadian team of Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje are in third place.
In the ladies competition later in the evening, the Americans had two top-10 finishers.
Bradie Tennell finished sixth in her Worlds debut, earning 131.13 points in the free skate for 199.89 points overall.
“I feel really good about that performance,” Tennell said. “I went out there and I just wanted to enjoy myself and skate a clean program and I feel like I did that.”
Mirai Nagasu earned 122.31 points on Friday night for 187.52 overall points. It caps off a season that started with the U.S. International Classic in September and included an Olympic bronze medal.
“I feel really good. It was a long season for me but I wanted to finish it off strongly and I did my best to do that today,” Nagasu said. “I think we could all say that [the season] was a very difficult but rewarding journey and I’m glad to have finished it the way that I did. I think I finished strong and although I may have dropped a couple of places, I’m happy with how I skated.”
Mariah Bell earned 115.25 points in the free skate for 174.40 overall. She finished 12th overall.
“Overall, I’m bummed with the performance because the beginning wasn’t as it was planned but fighting through to the end is a great takeaway for me. I wanted to use this as a opportunity just to keep training to the end of my season and ultimately finishing that program was [something I take pride in].”
The event will conclude on Saturday with the free dance and the men’s free skate. Full results from the event can be found here.
