Chapter 164: The Last Nationals

One of the nicest things to Sophia and Warren about their last ever National Championships was where it was being held--Boston.

The two of them still kept active in the online skating community. Sophia was responding to a post on the mailing list about what hotel skaters would be staying in while in Boston.

"None, half of them!" Sophia told the folks on the list. "Warren and I are staying at home, as are Ryan and Amy. Tom's staying at Warren's parents' house. You guys'll have to just grab your autographs at the Fleet Center!"

This was true enough, though Sophia and Warren did go into the hotel when everyone arrived, to hang out. They got dinner in the hotel restaurant on that Sunday with Liz and Crash. Crash hadn't returned to law school yet after Christmas break, so would be able to attend.

"What about the Olympics?" Warren asked him.

"I've worked that out. I've told my professors about it, and they're going to have me a bit ahead. Sorry, though, I won't be coming out in time to see you guys--I'm only coming for the ladies' event."

"Ah, well," Sophia said. "Guess you can't miss too much class."

"Exactly."

The competition began on Tuesday, with the first Dance OD, the quickstep. Warren and Sophia had no problems with it, and easily won. Amy and Ryan were second, with Courtney and Evan third.

Wednesday afternoon was the pairs' short program, in which Brett and Andrea romped. Then, that evening, the dancers went back out onto the ice with the Rock and Roll OD.

Warren and Sophie again took first place-and it wasn't close. In fact, the Ramones OD got them straight 6.0 marks for technical merit. The crowd was on its feet 30 seconds before it was over--and they exploded at the end. Amy and Ryan again held off Courtney and Evan for second place.

Thursday afternoon began the men's competition with the short program, and Tom had no challengers. Same went that evening with Brett and Andrea in the pairs' long program, as they easily won the national championship.

The drama started Friday afternoon, with the ladies' short program.

Since raising her technical level four years before, Liz Cushman had practically been unchallenged, up until her loss to Allison Bowman a month before at the Grand Prix finals. Liz had, for those for years, had the most challenging programs technically in the world.

However, Allison had caught up. Especially in the short program, where the jumps were limited. Liz did the hardest combination being done in the short program, triple lutz-triple toe. Only one other ladies' skater in the world was doing that--but that one was Allison.

This still usually wasn't a problem--because Liz had been the best artistic skater in the world for years. But Allison had caught up there, too.

Liz skated first, and had a little problem. It was the slightest of glitches--her free leg came down early on the back end of her combination. The lutz was clean, the takeoff of the toe was clean, she landed on one foot--but that second foot came right down, and she almost came to a complete stop. It was a clean jump, but it wasn't textbook. The rest of her program was.

Allison's entire short program, however was textbook. The combination could've been used on a jump training film. The rest of the program was just as good. And, after a year and a half of training with Terry and working on choreography with Warren and Sophia, her confidence had increased exponentially. It was close, 6 judges to 3, but Allison defeated Liz in the short program.