GOLD, CASTELLI AND SHNAPIR LEAD AT THE 2014 PRUDENTIAL U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Friday, January 10, 2014

GOLD, CASTELLI AND SHNAPIR LEAD AT THE 2014 PRUDENTIAL U.S. FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Gracie Gold after getting her score.

Joelle Forte

Boston, Massachusetts - The first day of senior events at the 2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Champions is in the books with the pairs short program and ladies short program. Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir lead the pairs event, while Gracie Gold topped the field in the ladies short program.

Skating in front of their hometown crowd, Castelli and Shnapir took the ice last and delivered their best short program performance of the season. The reigning champs earned 73.13 points and lead last year's bronze medalists Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay, who earned 66.50 points. In third after their skate on Thursday are DeeDee Leng and Timothy LeDuc with 66.40 points. Champions in 2012, Caydee Denney and John Coughlin are in fourth with 65.40 points.

After mistakes in her short program last year, Gold made no mistake grabbing the lead after the short program. Her huge opening triple Lutz-triple toe led the way to a program that earned 72.12 points. In her senior debut, Polina Edmunds brought the fans to their feet with a performance that earned 66.75 points while 2010 Olympian Mirai Nagasu is in podium position with 65.44 points. Two-time reigning champion Ashley Wagner sits in fourth place with 64.71 points.

Hannah Miller

The pairs and ladies will conclude their events live on NBC on Saturday. The final two groups of pairs will begin at 2:45 p.m. ET while the ladies free skate will begin at 6:45 p.m. ET.

Earlier in the day at TD Garden, Nathan Chen skated to an event record 223.93 points in the junior men's event and reclaimed the title he couldn't defend last year. Jordan Moeller, sixth after the short program, earned 134.25 points on Thursday and jumped to second, while Jimmy Ma earned the bronze.

In the junior ice dance event, second in 2013, Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker climbed to the top of the podium this year with a total of 152.26 points. Lorraine McNamara and Quinn Carpenter, bronze medalists at the junior level last year, earned the silver while Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons, who missed last year's event due to injury, earned the bronze.

At the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Caroline Green and Gordon Green claimed the lone title of the day as they earned 105.76 points in intermediate ice dance.

Tune in to icenetwork as Season Pass subscribers can watch live competition all day long on Friday. See the
chart below for a detailed schedule of events from Boston.

For more information on all of the events at the U.S. Championships, including recaps and results from all of the events, visit icenetwork.

(Left to Right) Agnes Zawadzki & Angela Wang

All senior events and all junior free skates will be held at TD Garden, while juvenile, and intermediate competition and junior short programs will be held at the BCEC.

For additional event information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.boston2014.com. To follow the event on Twitter, follow U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) and use the event hashtag #Boston2014.

2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships
NBC Broadcast Schedule (all times Eastern, subject to change, check local listing)

BROADCAST DATE	EVENT	TIME (ET)
Saturday, Jan. 11	LIVE pairs free skate and free dance	3-6 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 11	LIVE Ladies free skate	8-11 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 12	LIVE Men's free skate	3-5 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 18	Smucker's Skating Spectacular	4-6 p.m.

2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships
Icenetwork Broadcast Schedule (all times Eastern, subject to change, all events live unless noted)

BROADCAST DATE	EVENT	TIME (ET)
Friday, Jan. 10	Intermediate pairs free skate Junior ladies free skate Junior pairs free skate Intermediate ladies free skate Intermediate men's free skate Senior short dance Senior men's short program	8:30 a.m. 8:45 a.m. 10:50 a.m. 12:10 p.m. 1:45 p.m. 1:45 p.m. 8 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 11	Senior pairs free skate (early groups) Senior free skate (early groups) Senior pairs free skate (late groups) Senior free dance (late groups) Senior ladies free skate (early groups) Senior ladies free skate (late groups)**	11:30 a.m. 12:45 p.m. On-demand On-demand 6:45 p.m. On-demand
Sunday, Jan. 12	Senior men's free skate (early groups) Senior men's free skate (late groups)**	12:50 a.m. On-demand