Three-time and reigning World champion Ilia Malinin took the first step toward a fourth event title with the top short program score Friday night at 2026 Saatva Skate America in Everett, Washington.

Later that evening, two-time and reigning U.S. pairs champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov finished just off the lead in the pairs short program.

The competition, the fourth stop in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, is being held at the Angel Of The Winds Arena.

Malinin self-nicknamed the "QuadG0d," opened his tribute routine to the victims of the January 2025 plane crash with a successful quad flip followed by a triple Axel and Level 4 camel spin.

He hit a snag on his next jumping pass but finished strong with Level 4s for his step sequence and combination spin.

His program to "Cantata Memoria: For the Children" by Karl Jenkins earned the three-time World champion the top technical and program component scores of the short program at 96.74 and 44.74 points, respectively.

"It felt a lot different skating at this event than in previous years," Malinin said. "I feel a lot more connected to the audience, a lot more connected to the music and the program itself.

"The short program for me is very sentimental and it's a very emotional piece that I'm getting into. There's a lot of tragedy and a lot of negative stuff that happens in the world and I think a lot of it is unnecessary, but we have to remember that we all have to unite as one and try to see the light in every possible situation."
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He takes a 5.45-point lead into Saturday's free skate.

Daniel Martynov made his Grand Prix Series debut, posting a season-best score of 84.17 to finish fifth in the segment. The Illinois native skated to the 1973 anthem "Radar Love" by Golden Earring.

He performance included landing an opening quad toe loop followed by a triple Lutz- triple toe loop combination and a Level 4 spin.

"It felt incredible," Martynov said. "I put in a tremendous amount of work for this competition to be in a position to go out there and enjoy it. … "For me, that first jump [quad] is setting the tone and when you nail that, you are kind of like, 'let's keep this going.'"

Martynov, seventh at the 2026 U.S. Championships, arrived in Everett having earned a silver medal at the 2026 Cranberry Cup, a Challenger Series event.

Jason Brown, competing for the seventh time at Skate America but for the first time this season, produced a score of 84.00 and sits sixth after the short program.

Brown had carried with him the disappointment of the 2026 U.S. Championships in St. Louis, in which he placed eighth and missed out on an Olympic berth. Exorcising demons was a priority, he said.

"I went into this mode of I'm so grateful and humbled and honored just to be here, and to feel the support of the crowd even before starting the program …," Brown said. "In January [at the U.S. Championships] I shied away from it, and I was so overwhelmed in an unfortunately a negative way. This time, I said, 'Jason, no matter what happens today, embrace it, know how lucky you are to experience this.' I worked so hard to get back to this point."

The fan favorite performed to "His Body Lies" (from The Traitors soundtrack) and "Toxic" by Britney Spears. He turned in a vintage Brown performance that included Level 4s for his three spins and step sequence. He received an edge call on his opening triple Axel. His program component score was second-best of the event at 44.66 points.

Brown is a two-time Olympian (2014, 2022) and owns nine Grand Prix Series medals.

Efimova and Mitrofanov equaled their personal-best international score of 71.85. They are less than one point out of the lead heading into Saturday night's free skate.

The Boston-based team is in a position to qualify for its first ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final after earning the silver medal earlier this fall at Skate Canada International.

"We don't want to keep the Grand Prix Final in mind right now," Mitrofanov said. "Our focus is the free skate. We want to be in the now and feel ourselves and be in the moment."

In their lively disco-inspired performance to "Last Dance" by Donna Summer, the two-time and reigning U.S. titlists received Level 4 credit for their lift, spin, step sequence and death spiral. Their triple twist lift garnered a program-high 7.41 points.

Katie McBeath and Balazs Nagy earned a personal-best score of 67.62 for their short program to "Carmen" by Bizet. They sit fifth after the short program.
"I felt [I was] in each element throughout the program," McBeath said.

"The first thing I said to Katie when we got done is 'that's how we train,'" Nagy said. "So to me it was our training paying off. It just affirms what we are doing is working."

They received Level 4 credit for their opening triple twist lift, death spiral, spin and lift. The duo also earned positive grades of execution on every element.

 The couple, who began their partnership in July, started their season by earning a bronze medal at the John Nicks Pairs Challenge.

Audrey Shin and Spencer Akira Howe, who also teamed up in July, generated 64.86 points for their program to "Photograph" by Cody Fry and "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy.

Except for a fall on their throw triple Salchow, they performed a clean routine that included Level 4s for their lift, death spiral and step sequence.

"Besides the throw, everything felt really good," Shin said. "We've been working a lot on our twist and obviously the throw but today I think I did a little too much there. But otherwise, we are happy."

"We are just getting started this season," Howe added. "Of course, you want to go out and land everything but at the end of the day, the work we've done since our last competition really feels like we've made some good progress on the ice. We want to keep leaning into that as we go into the long program."

They arrived in Everett having earned two silver medals at Challenger Series events.

The Grand Prix Series, which started in 1995, consists of six international events in a cumulative point-scoring format. Each athlete or team is eligible to score points in up to two of the six scheduled events. The top six point-earners in each discipline qualify for the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2026, set for Dec. 10-13 in Chongqing, China.

For a full schedule, results, news and more, visit the 2026 Saatva Skate America Competition Central.