Miami can send their head coach out a champion, but other teams are looking to play spoiler.
Las Vegas is the site of the 2024 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships with the Collegiate Division competing this Saturday at 3:51 PM Eastern time. Nine levels of synchronized skating will crown a champion by the end of the competition on Saturday night, but I am focusing on the Collegiate Division.
Two MAC universities have synchronized skating teams associated with them, Western Michigan and Miami. At most universities, the team is a club sport that is organized and financed by the skaters. Some are independent organizations and a few, like Miami, are varsity sports.
However the team is created and organized, this is not an NCAA event. United States Figure Skating runs the sport and the competition. Of the 13 teams in the division, all but one qualified to compete at the national championships at sectional competitions.
If you’re new to the sport, it’s figure skating with 12-20 skaters on the ice at once, skating as a team to score as many points as possible. It’s similar to Olympic figure skating in that there are technical elements and program components to the score. The skaters connect to each other to make distinct shapes like lines, circles and squares or disconnect and perform individual movements in a synchronized way.
In the collegiate division, eight elements are required for the technical score. The order of the elements and which elements to use is up to each team. There are three mandatory elements but the other five offer a chance to tailor the program to team strengths and to be creative. Each element has levels of difficulty and base values associated with each level.
There are ways to separate teams within element levels called grade of execution, or GOE. The top teams will be striving for the highest levels of each element, so how well the element is performed comes into play. The judges record a number between -5 and +5 and that turns into a score that is a percentage of the base value for that element. The base values combined with the GOE scores are added to create the total element score.
The program component score is the point value for the composition, presentation and skating skills of the program and team. The music interpretation, facial expressions, artistry, skating skills and transitions between elements all play a factor in this portion of the score.
A Canadian team, Les Supreme, is the defending, back-to-back world champion at the highest level of the sport. When it all goes well, this is what it looks like:
Life is about setting expectations and managing them appropriately. Only one team can win a national championship on Saturday and if all 12 make that their expectation, most will leave unhappy. Synchro allows teams the opportunity to essentially skate against themselves and attempt to post their best score of the season every time they skate.
But placement matters too. I’ve broken this into tiers based on their high score this season so it’s a little easier for me to judge a good day versus a bad one for each team.
Miami has won two national titles in a row and could cruise to third. Is there anyone that can take the title away from them? Let’s take a look!
Miami is in a tier alone
The lowest score that Miami has scored this season was 103.13 in their first competition in Kalamazoo. No other team has scored higher at any competition. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison because the judges and technical panel that create the scores change at every competition, but it’s remarkable that they’ve put that much of a gap between themselves and the field.
I usually try to create some drama at the top so that there’s a fight for the title, but I have to give Miami their flowers this season. They’ve earned this tier alone at the top.
Miami’s head coach is Carla DeGirolamo, who announced this past December she would step down from leading the program at season’s end. DeGirolamo took over as head coach in the 2009-10 season and kept the RedHawks winning championships after the retirement of Vicki Korn.
Miami has a senior team that competes internationally and at the World Championships when they qualify. There are big shoes to fill in Oxford for whoever is up for the challenge.
This is the Collegiate Division swan song for DeGirolamo and anything other than a national title would be deeply shocking. Their score at Mids was an astounding 115.85 and the next highest score anyone else has scored this season was in that same competition. A 101.97 was all the field could muster.
The Miami skaters have a chance to send their head coach off a champion.
New teams with eyes on a podium
New has a few meanings here.
Western Michigan has been on the podium in each of the last two competitions, taking third each time. Trine has been making steady progress and looks to crash the podium for the first time since the program started in the 2018-19 season. The Northernettes started their collegiate team this season in Minnesota and have posted the second-highest score of the season.
Western Michigan’s highest score of the season came in their first competition at the Kalamazoo Kick-Off. Since then, topping the 96.60 has proved difficult. Their protocols show that the base values have increased since their first competition but the total score hasn’t followed. That means they’re not skating their more difficult program as well as their easier one from early in the season, but it does set them up nicely for this competition.
Sometimes a team can put a ceiling on their score by not pushing the difficulty as the season progresses but not executing can lead to lower scores. This program has more potential for points, but the Broncos need their best skate yet to capitalize.
Trine took third at Mids with a 100.73, which was consistent progress. They opened the season with an 82.89, jumped to 97.22 at the Porter Classic and broke triple digits at Mids. A good skate could get them their highest-ever finish after taking fourth last year.
The Northernettes are a new team that’s not directly affiliated with a university. Minnesota, for all of its hockey players and figure skaters, hasn’t had a collegiate synchro team for skaters to pursue after high school in many years. Clearly, there’s enough talent in the area to be instantly competitive. A podium in their debut season would be a huge accomplishment.
Michigan can be the best of the rest
University of Delaware, University of Michigan and Michigan State all skated at the Porter Classic and Delaware scored the best of this group that day. Their 89.78 topped Michigan’s 80.79 and Michigan State’s 57.67.
One of those scores is not like the others.
Michigan State has either had a clean skate and scored a competitive number with this group of teams or had multiple falls. In the Porter Classic, Michigan State had seven falls. I’ve never seen a number that high for deductions, but I have also heard the Spartans have had skaters out of the lineup at times this season. They earned their best score at Mids and are peaking at the right time.
Delaware only has two results this year, but both have been very consistent. Their score at Eastern Sectionals was 85.69 which was lower than their season-high, but good enough to win.
Michigan is the only team to break up strings of Miami championships, but this is not the year for them to steal the show. They have been in the low to mid-80s in three of their four competitions this season, maybe they make a jump at Nationals.
Adrian College and Team Excel separated by three points
Adrian has the higher score between themselves and Team Excel, but it’s not consistently higher. They have skated at four competitions and have been consistently in the upper 60s with a 75.65 at the Porter Classic.
Team Excel has only skated four times at three competitions and improved their score by nearly ten points from their first competition to sectionals. The New England Synchronized Skating Open is a fascinating competition where every team skates twice and the combined score is used to rank the teams. They were the only Collegiate team there but I love the idea of measuring consistency and the mental side of needing to skate well twice to win.
Adrian and Team Excel haven’t competed directly against each other this season. One of the teams was at seven of the nine competitions, but never the same one.
Spicy Massachusetts teams
Boston College, Boston University and UMass are consistently competing against each other. All three went to the Boston Synchro Classic to start their season, and all three were at the Eastern Sectionals.
Boston University has topped their in-state opponents in the last three nationals competitions with Boston College coming in second in 2022 and 2023. The Eagles did not qualify in 2020.
Four points separated these three teams at the Boston Synchro Classic, but Boston College and Boston University have jumped their scores by at least ten points each. UMass hasn’t made the same jump, but there’s one more competition. UMass had a fall at the Eastern Sectionals which could depress the score more than the one point that the fall counts for.
My National Champion: Illinois
Illinois was the only team that did not qualify for Nationals, but they’re my national champion. I saw them skate in Kalamazoo and watched Mids and I love their program. Whoever picked the music is definitely in my age group with a punk rock/emo program featuring My Chemical Romance, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy and others. Illinois, I see what you’re doing, and I’m here for it.
The collegiate division skates at 3:51 pm EST on Saturday and can be watched on Peacock Premium with a valid subscription.