Getty Nathan Chen competes in the Men's Short Program during the 2018 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the SAP Center.
Nathan Chen defended his U.S. national title on Saturday night with a stunning performance in the men’s free skate. The 18-year-old landed five quadruple jumps to finish the competition with a dominating 315.23 score.
Adam Rippon and Jason Brown, entered Saturday’s free skate in second and third place, respectively, but both struggled in the free skate and finished fourth and sixth.
Ross Miner and 2017 U.S. silver medalist Vincent Zhou rose from sixth and fifth, respectively, after the short program to finish second and third.
One pair and three men — not necessarily the top finishers from nationals — will be named to the Olympic team on Sunday.
Here are the results after the men’s free skate:
1 Nathan Chen, Salt Lake Figure Skating 315.23
2 Ross Miner, SC of Boston 274.51
3 Vincent Zhou, SC of San Francisco 273.83
4 Adam Rippon, SC of New York 268.34
5 Grant Hochstein, SC of New York 255.31
6 Jason Brown, Skokie Valley SC 253.68
7 Timothy Dolensky, Atlanta FSC 236.33
8 Alexander Johnson, Braemar-City of Lakes FSC 232.62
9 Max Aaron, Broadmoor SC 224.20
10 Aleksei Krasnozhon, Dallas FSC 223.58
11 Jimmy Ma, SC of New York 222.41
12 Tomoki Hiwatashi, DuPage FSC 217.53
13 Andrew Torgashev, Panthers FSC 217.01
14 Sean Rabbitt, Glacier Falls FSC 214.46
15 Jordan Moeller, Northern Ice SC 180.21
16 Ben Jalovick, Centennial 7k SC 178.33
17 Daniel Kulenkamp, FSC of Southern California 177.95
18 Emmanuel Savary, University of Delaware FSC 177.13
19 Sebastien Payannet, Los Angeles FSC 172.89
20 Scott Dyer, All Year FSC 172.04
21 Kevin Shum, SC of Boston 163.33
Preview
Nathan Chen has a strong lead entering Saturday night’s free skate. Chen finished in first place with a 104.45 score, which placed him well ahead of Adam Rippon (96.52) and Jason Brown (93.23), a 2014 team bronze medalist at the Sochi Olympics.
Although Chen didn’t cleanly land his triple axel, he hit two quads in a dominant short program. The reigning national champion landed a quadruple flip, triple toe combination plus a quadruple toe and a triple Axel to secure the second-highest short program score in nationals history. The highest is the score Chen set last year when he became the first skater to land five quadruple jumps in one program.
Neither Rippon nor Brown attempted a four-revolution jump Thursday.