Ilia Malinin thrives on the biggest stages and that continued on Thursday night at the 2026 Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis when he delivered a blockbuster, personal-best short program that brought the audience to their feet.

Malinin, the three-time defending U.S. champion, was energy personified in his electric short program, choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne to a medley from The Lost Crown video game. The jumps — an opening quad flip, followed by a triple Axel and quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination — are some of the toughest in the sport, but the Quad God reeled them off with ease, focusing instead on angular, full body movements and steps, capped by an acrobatic closing section featuring a backflip, "Raspberry" aerial twist and a one-armed cartwheel. 

He posted a score of 115.10. His previous-best was 114.08. The score is just behind that of 2022 Olympic champion Nathan Chen for the highest men's short program score at the U.S. Championships (Chen scored 115.39 in 2022).

"This environment was so incredible," Malinin said. "They were so pumped up, so fired up. I felt support from every single person in the stands. They really helped me get through my program, that was so meaningful for me and I'm sure for all the athletes. It was such a good experience and I'm looking forward to that again."

Malinin, the two-time and reigning World champion, arrived in St. Louis unbeaten since December 2023.

Tomoki Hiwatashi flew high in a clean, exciting program to Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic "Freebird." The dynamic skater, who trains in Japan under Mie Hamada, attacked each element, including an opening quad toe. He carried tremendous speed through his step sequence, which was punctuated by kicks and a cantilever.

The two-time U.S. Championships medalist posted a score of 89.26 and sits second heading into Saturday's free skate.

"That [quad] toe was q [quarter underrotated]," Hiwatashi said. "I felt it when I was doing it. But it feels good to land it whether it be q, whether it be under. Being on the ice, landing it on one foot, it just feels amazing. After that I was able to get the momentum going into the [triple] Axel and [triple] Lutz-[triple] toe. I really enjoyed being on the ice in St. Louis."

Performing to "Reel Around the Sun," music he used for the free skate that brought him viral internet fame in 2014, Jason Brown landed one of his best triple Axels of the season but fell out of the second jump in his triple Lutz-triple toe loop combination. After that, the program took flight, with inspired steps, spins and a high-flying split jump.

Brown, who is vying for his 10th U.S. Championships medal, generated 88.49 points.

"It was great to get out there, compete," Brown said. "Especially with the short program, Ok, it's out of the way. I just had a blast performing, definitely some errors. That said. I was proud of the attack and the performance and I look forward to talking through what happen with my coach and regrouping for Saturday."

The evening took an emotional turn when Maxim Naumov, who lost his parents and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov in the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342 on Jan. 29, 2025, took the ice for a heartfelt program to Chopin's "Nocturne no. 20," choreographed by Benoit Richaud.

After a sustained ovation from the Enterprise Center crowd, Naumov opened with a quad Salchow, turning out slightly on the landing, followed by a triple Axel and triple Lutz-triple toe combination. More impressive than the jumps were his superb musicality and refined positions and stretch in the steps and spins. The elegant routine earned 85.72 points, and Naumov ended the evening in fourth place.

Sitting with coach Vladamir Petrenko in the kiss and cry, Naumov held up a photo of his parents, kissing it as he struggled to hold back tears.

In ice dance, Madison Chock and Evan Bates moved a step closer to winning a record seventh U.S. ice dance title with a riveting performance.

The three-time and reigning World champions performed their finest rhythm dance of the season, flowing seamlessly from one element to the next in a hard-charging Lenny Kravitz medley. The dynamic program included three Level 4 elements and was capped by an outstanding rotational lift.

"We had a ton of fun performing today," Chock said. "I felt like we were present and grounded and able to enjoy the energy of the arena and connection between the two of us. We felt like this was a great skate and a great steppingstone toward Milan."

The Montreal-based team posted a score of 91.70, less than one point off their previous U.S. best rhythm dance score of 92.17 at the 2024 U.S. Championships.

They arrived having won four consecutive U.S. titles. They currently share the record of six with 2014 Olympic champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Speed, attack and finesse all combined in Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik's rhythm dance, set to a Bell Biv Devoe medley. The rising stars, who qualified for the Grand Prix Final this season, capitalized on their crisp movements, closing with frenetic highlights.

Zingas and Kolesnik, two-time and reigning U.S. pewter medalists, posted a personal-best score of 85.98 with their performance to "Poison" and "Something in Your Eyes."

"We were excited to perform today," Zingas said. "It's been a crazy year for us already and we are just trying to enjoy every moment. Although I feel today might not have been our 100 percent best performance, I think I was having a lot of fun and maybe people enjoying that and seeing that is why we got rewarded for it."

"I don't think we focused so much on the technical aspects of it," Kolesnik added. "We just wanted to go out there and have fun, because we felt like we've done so much work this season and this is not the moment we should be stressed about the results; we should enjoy ourselves and be proud of what we did the season."

Defending silver medalists Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko went a different route with their elegant routine to "Sweet Dreams," executing challenging steps in close hold positions, carrying good speed throughout.

They generated a personal-best score of 83.29 and sit third heading into the free dance.

Their work on and off the ice after a disappointing Skate America in mid-November paid dividends, Ponomarenko said.

"We were fortunate to have seven full weeks before U.S. nationals," he said. "We did a lot of reflecting ourselves, with our coaching team and our mental coaches and figured out what makes us, us. We changed the free dance. We did a lot of good changes such as we have new costumes for the rhythm dance, but overall just finding that confidence again and figuring out why do we compete in figure skating. Someone told us skate for your 10-year-old self. So the last seven weeks and this nationals, I'm skating for that little boy who had a dream."

For full results, how to watch information, bios and more, visit the U.S. Figure Skating website.