Levito eyes first U.S. title, leads after short program
By SONJA CHEN
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Teenager Isabeau Levito scored 73.78 to take the lead after the women’s short program on Thursday night, closing out the first day of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
Levito, the reigning junior world champion who took third place in her senior nationals debut last year, entered as the favorite to win her first U.S. title after an impressive international senior debut in which she earned silver at both Grand Prix assignments and the Grand Prix Final last month.
The 15-year-old holds a razor-thin lead over two-time national champion Bradie Tennell, who put down a clean skate after missing the entire 2021-22 season with foot and ankle injuries. Though Tennell struggled with consistency in her Grand Prix assignments last fall, she recorded a season-best score of 73.76 in her return to San Jose, where she won her first title in 2018.
Starr Andrews is fewer than five points out of the lead. Five years after she wowed the SAP Center crowd with a free skate set to her cover of Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” in her senior nationals debut, the 21-year-old is in third place by a slim margin after the short program, edging Amber Glenn by a hundredth of a point.
Rounding out the top four was Amber Glenn, who scored 68.96. The 2021 U.S. silver medalist — who withdrew from nationals following a positive COVID-19 test in 2022 — delivered a captivating performance, but two-footed the landing on her final jumping pass, a triple loop, leaving points on the table.
It will be a quick turnaround to crown a national champion, as the women’s event concludes with the free skate on Friday night. Earlier in the day, the men’s event kicks off with the short program.
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