Above: Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski cut loose at their earlier JGP event this season. Photo credit: Getty Images.
Three pairs teams and two ice dance teams lead Team USA into action Sept. 25-28 at ISU Junior Grand Prix Poland in Gdansk, Poland, the fifth of seven stops on the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series.
Saya Carpenter and Jon Maravilla, Elizabeth Hansen and William Church, and Reagan Moss and Jakub Galbavy will represent Team USA in the pairs competition, while Yahli Pedersen and Benjamin Starr and Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski will vie for medals in ice dance.
Cleo Park, the 2024 U.S. junior bronze medalist, is the only U.S. singles athlete at the competition. Although she is making her Junior Grand Prix debut, the California native, who trains in Anaheim, has medaled at multiple international events, including gold in the junior event at 2023 Tayside Trophy.
Wolfkostin and Tsarevski are looking for their third medal this season and second straight on the Junior Grand Prix circuit. In September, the duo claimed the silver medal at JGP Czech Republic after securing the silver medal at the 2024 Lake Placid Ice Dance International.
Pedersen and Starr will compete for the first time together. Pedersen entered the partnership having skated previously with Jeffrey Chen, while Starr competed with Jenna Hauer.
In the pairs competition, Hansen and Church will skate at their second Junior Grand Prix event this season. Competing back-to-back weekends, they placed fifth in Turkey last weekend in their Junior Grand Prix and international debut.
Moss and Galbavy will attempt to build upon their sixth-place finish at 2024 JGP Latvia. They kicked off their season in style in early September by winning the junior division of the 2024 John Nicks Pairs Challenge International in Boston.
Carpenter and Maravilla will also compete for a second time this season on the JGP circuit after taking seventh JGP Czech Republic. Fifth in the junior division at the 2024 U.S. Championships, Carpenter and Maravilla reunited in March 2023 after joining forces originally in March 2021.
The competition gets underway on Thursday at Hala Olivia arena with the women’s, pairs and men’s short programs. The rhythm dance kicks off things on Friday, followed by the pairs free skate and women’s free skate. The free dance and men’s free skate wraps up the competition on Saturday.
Fans can watch all the action from JGP Poland, as well as the entire Junior Grand Prix Series, live on the ISU YouTube channel.
Now in its 27th season, the ISU Junior Grand Prix Series consists of seven international events in a cumulative point-scoring format. Each athlete is eligible to score points in two of the seven scheduled events (pairs can compete in two of four designated events). The top six point-earners in each discipline qualify for the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final 2024, taking place Dec. 5-8 in Grenoble, France.
For more information on the Junior Grand Prix Series, including full results, news and more, visit the Junior Grand Prix Competition Central on the U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone.
U.S. ENTRIES AT JGP POLAND
Athlete | Hometown | Training Town
Women
Cleo Park| Orange County, Calif. | Anaheim, Calif.
Pairs
Saya Carpenter and Jon Maravilla | Canton, Mich.; New Bloomfield, Mich. | Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Elizabeth Hansen and William Church | Lake Forest, Ill.; Peoria, Ill. | Geneva, Ill.
Reagan Moss and Jakub Galbavy | Minnetonka, Minn.; Shakopee, Minn.| Bloomington, Minn.
Ice Dance
Yahli Pedersen and Benjamin Starr | Ann Arbor Mich.; Avon, Conn.| Canton, Mich.
Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski | Ann Arbor, Mich.; Lakewood, Colo. | Canton, Mich.
