Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko’s silver medal marks the eighth consecutive year that a U.S team has medaled in the event’s ice dance competition. The 2018 U.S. junior champions finished second with the second-best free dance of the night. They earned 86.83 points, receiving all positive Grades of Execution (GOEs), for a total of 146.78. The duo fought back from a disappointing sixth place in the short dance after an error on their twizzles to land on their second consecutive World Junior podium in as many appearances. Carreira and Ponomarenko, who train alongside Olympians Madison Chock and Evan Bates, won bronze at the event last year.
The U.S. teams of Caroline Green and Gordon Green and Chloe Lewis and Logan Bye both finished in the top 10 in their World Junior debuts. The Green siblings finished sixth after tallying a total of 141.83 points, setting new personal bests in both segments and total. Lewis and Bye were right behind in seventh with 139.17 points, also a new personal best.
Ting Cui capped off her first junior international season by setting all new personal bests in the ladies field. With only one negative GOE out of 11 elements and four jumping passes in the second half of her free skate, the 2018 U.S. junior bronze medalist finished seventh with 180.39 points. Fellow American Emmy Ma placed 19th with a total score of 139.98.
In the men’s competition, 2018 U.S. junior champion Camden Pulkinen executed the fourth-best free skate of the night, rallying back after placing 17th in the short program earlier this week. Pulkinen finished sixth overall with 207.88 points. Tomoki Hiwatashi also came back from a tough short program to tally a total of 206.68 and place seventh in the field. 2017 Junior Grand Prix Final champion Alex Krasnozhon, who was in the lead after the short program, was forced to withdraw after suffering a right ankle injury on his opening quad attempt in his free skate.
The pairs contingency of Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov and Sarah Feng and TJ Nyman successfully secured three spots for the United States at next year’s World Junior Championships for the first time since 2016. Lu and Mitrofanov, the 2018 U.S. junior champions, finished fifth with a total of 160.09 in their World Junior debut. Feng and Nyman came in eighth with 143.10 to wrap up their successful debut season.
