Young pairs skaters lead

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Forget the rest of the Americans. Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker want a crack at the world.

The reigning junior world champions showed they’re more than capable of hanging with the big kids, edging former champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin Jr. to win the short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. McLaughlin and Brubaker’s score of 66.54 points put them 1.3 points ahead of Inoue and Baldwin going into the free skate Saturday.

“We don’t go anywhere to skate for second,” Brubaker said.

That’s some big talk, but McLaughlin and Brubaker have the skills to back it up. In only their second season together, the two have made a meteoric rise in a discipline where couples often take years to develop. They went undefeated in the junior ranks last year, and qualified for the senior Grand Prix final last fall.

All three medalists from last year’s U.S. championships missed the Grand Prix season, so McLaughlin and Brubaker were the only Americans at the final. Though they withdrew after the short program because he developed cellulitis, the experience was priceless because, at 15, she is too young for them to go to the world championships in March.

“For us, the biggest competition is against the other countries,” Brubaker said. “The U.S. has some good teams, but the Canadians and Germans and Chinese, they were our main focus.”

Defending champions Brooke Castile and Ben Okolski, who had to sit out the Grand Prix season because she had a series of leg injuries, were third with 58.95 points.

In the compulsory ice dance, four-time champs Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are in first with 41.86 points.