East Bay prodigy Alysa Liu, 14, leaps past skaters for another U.S. championship

Richmond teenager Alysa Liu defended her title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.

All the pageantry and drama of figure skating exploded Friday night at the U.S. championships where the accession of Bay Area teenager Alysa Liu continued unabated.

Lu, 14, was not perfect in the free skate but it did not stop the Richmond girl from making history on a night America’s best performed gallantly in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“I didn’t really expect any result, like first, second or third,” Liu told reporters. “I just wanted to skate a clean program, that’s always my goal. I always want to do better than before.”

Liu landed eight triple jumps, including two triple axels, to rally to defend her U.S. Figure Skating title. She rebounded from second place in the short program just like Liu did a year ago in Detroit to become the youngest skater in history to win a U.S. championship.

Relying on the most technically difficult program of any American woman, Liu won going away to become the youngest two-time winner in history. It did not matter that the teen under-rotated her quadruple lutz to lose 1.58 points in the grade of execution.

No other competitor in the 18-skater field dared try a triple axel, 3 ½ rotations, much less a quadruple jump.

The jumping spectacle coupled with solid component scores was more than enough to offset a brilliant show by runner-up Mariah Bell, who was 10.31 points behind the champion.

On a dramatic night when the three medalists were the final skaters, Liu had more than enough to overcome Bell’s superior artistry and seven clean triple jumps.

“I was like, wow,” Liu said of Bell’s performance. “I was kind of clapping along with the crowd. I guess I was kind of inspired by her emotion and her happiness. I guess that inspired me at the end of my program to relax and be happy and just kind of be aware of the moment.”

Bell had a total of 225.21 points skating to “Hallelujah” by K.D. Lang to overtake first-day leader Bradie Tennell, who fell on her final triple jump to score 220.86 points for the bronze medal.

“It’s a very special feeling,” Bell said. “I haven’t had that before in my career. The coolest thing about it was how into it the crowd was. They were so loud and it was so cool.”

America’s three leading skaters were well ahead of 2018 Olympian Karen Chen of Fremont, who was fourth in an impressive return after struggling with a lingering foot injury and starting her freshman year at Cornell University.

“I felt it was pretty disappointing,” Chen told reporters. “I’ve trained harder and done better.”

Chen, a pre-med major, said she will consider taking a gap year to prepare for the Beijing Games in 2022.

Another East Bay skater, Sierra Venetta of Danville, completed seven triple jumps with a couple of errors to go from 11th in the short program to seventh overall.

But the night belonged to Liu, who trains at the Oakland Ice Center and is a high school sophomore taking online courses.

Liu was not feeling the pressure three hours before the competition began, according to her father, Arthur Liu. He said his daughter had nothing special planned after a final warmup. She would rest at their hotel and return to Greensboro Coliseum for the showdown.

“If she wins, that’s great. If not, we’ll come back next year,” said Arthur Liu, an Oakland lawyer and single father of five children.

The first quad attempted by a lady at U.S. Championships. @alysaxliu your back-to-back U.S. ladies champion #USChamps20 x @alysaxliu pic.twitter.com/yb7ZSddyiq

— U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) January 25, 2020

Next year’s championships are scheduled for SAP Center in San Jose, the arena that played host to the 2018 Olympic trials. Most skating experts expect the same women to lead the American charge through the latest Olympic cycle that culminates in Beijing when Liu would be eligible for senior international competition.

Although she is now the two-time U.S. champion, Liu will have to compete in the Junior World Championships, March 2-8 in Estonia, because of her age.

For now, Arthur Liu and coach Laura Lipetsky have tried to shield Liu from feeling she has to satisfy others’ expectations.

“It really doesn’t matter what happens,” Arthur Liu said before the free skate Friday. “She needs to find out for herself how important it is. It is a learning process.”

The father said showing improvement in Liu’s overall skating was more important than defending the title.

“Her skating skills and presentation all improved quite a bit,” Arthur Liu said of the short program. “Except for that mistake” stepping out of the triple axel “she skated fairly well.”

Alysa Liu now has won a U.S. crown three consecutive years, including the junior title in 2018.

In her first season competing on the international stage, Liu won two Junior Grand Prix meetings and finished second last month at the Junior Grand Prix Final after winning the short program.

Liu’s placing Friday marked the seventh consecutive year a Bay Area woman has won a medal at the U.S. championships. Polina Edmunds of San Jose was runner-up in 2014 and ‘16 while Chen won in 2017 and was third in 2018 and ‘15.

The streak rivals the run by Olympians Debi Thomas of San Jose and Kristi Yamaguchi of Fremont who collectively won medals from 1985-92.

Tennell, a week shy of 22, entered the free skate leading Liu by 3.58 points after a flawless short program that showed off a new side of Cary, Illinois, skater. But Tennell had a 2.71-point lead a year ago in Detroit when Liu’s technical superiority in the free skate leapfrogged the 2018 Olympian.

Liu’s base advantage increased in the free skate, where the two triple axels and a quadruple lutz were worth 10.4 points more than Tennell’s three highest-value jumps.

The junior skaters from Russia are the ones Liu measures herself against because they are expected to be the main competition at the Beijing Games. But Arthur Liu is happy to see the U.S. women skate strongly this week.

“I want to see competition in the U.S.,” he said. “I want to see everybody skate well and push each other. There has to be competition. That’s how it makes you better.”

Christina Carreira and partner Anthony Ponomarenko of Morgan Hill keep improving but again found it difficult to break through the United States’ depth in ice dance.

Carreira and Ponomarenko placed fourth in the rhythm dance with a score of 78.02 points performing to Cole Porter’s “It’s Too Darn Hot.” They finished fifth last year in their senior-level debut.

Ponomarkeno, whose parents are three-time Olympic medalists who coach at Sharks Ice in San Jose, told reporters that the pair wanted to “skate with lots of energy to show that we can be part of the competition.”

Two-time Olympians Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who won the silver medal last month at the Grand Prix Final in Italy, scored 87.63 points to hold a 1.32-point lead over Montreal-based training partners Madison Hubbell and Zach Donohue. Hubbell and Donohue, who won medals at the past two World Championships, were third at the Grand Prix Final in December.

Reigning bronze medalists Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker led Carreira and Ponomarenko by 4.57 points for the final podium spot heading into Saturday’s free dance.

Although Carreira and Ponomarenko say they have made a big improvement this season, they have to get a lot better to break into the top three U.S. teams.

“Just skating more together, better lines, mostly everything,” Ponomarenko said of what they need.