U.S. Figure Skating Championship notebook: Finishers of note

Finishes of note

Kay Bergdolt and Miles Addison, the pairs team from Wake County, finished 7th in the novice pairs dance program at the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Monday.

Ana Draovitch of Cary finished 8th overall in the womens novice competition at the championships, also Monday.

A little help from friends

Senior pairs skaters Caitlin Yankowskas and John Coughlin hollered for the novice pairs champions Madeline Aaron and Max Settlage. They had to look out for their pals from Colorado - both teams skate at the same club in Colorado Springs.

"It's lonely out there on the ice," Coughlin said. "We gotta support them.

The cheers - one of which was a tease on Settlage's white pants he wore to skate to music from "The Nutcracker" - must've worked.

The pair won gold in their division of the figure skating championships.

The champion arrives

Rachael Flatt, reigning 2010 U.S. Womens Figure Skating Champion, arrived in Greensboro about 3 p.m. at the Sheraton Four Seasons.

She was as full of smiles and warmth as one might expect, but deferred questions to go through U.S. Figure Skating officials. Fans are another story, though. Within a few minutes she had stopped to take a photo with some girls who were checking out with their moms.

Gabrielle Mauro, 12, was able to get a photo with Flatt and her friend Paige Connors, 10. They came down from Buffalo, N.Y. to be here and support their friend Jordan Bauth.

"She was really, really nice," Mauro said about Flatt. "I kinda took a double take."

The photo will be added to others she has with figure skating stars from past championships.

"I put 'em in a scrapbook," she said.

Field trip

Local school students will get a chance to see figure skating, much like they do during the Women's ACC Basketball Tournament.

They starting coming monday, and will each day throguh Thursday. A total of 3,530 students will come over that time, according to Greensboro Coliseum officials.

There will be nine school districts in attendance from Alamance, Guilford, Randolph, Lee, Davie, Forsyth, Davidson, Montgomery counties and Thomasville City Schools, along with four private schools and nine homeschools attending.