Cranberry Cup 2025 - Friday Notables
The Advanced Novice Division wrapped up its action, while the Junior Women and Men took the ice for the first time.
The 2025 Cranberry Cup International officially got underway Thursday with the short programs for the Advanced Novice Boys and Girls divisions. However, I didn’t make it up to Norwood, Mass. until Friday.
Originally I was only planning on coming up Friday afternoon for the Junior Women’s and Men’s short programs, but I decided to get an early start to the day to catch the free skates for the Advanced Novice skaters, and a showdown in the girls division made the earlier trip worth the lack of sleep on Friday morning.
Advanced Novice Boys Free Skate
Truth be told, I wasn’t too familiar with any of the nine skaters in this group, made up entirely of skaters from the United States and Canada. Hitonari Tani of the U.S. posted the best skate of the day, but he came into Friday in fourth, so it was only good enough to bump him up to second. Colton Moness of Canada (seen in the clip below), who had the lead after Thursday’s short program, hung on to the top spot in the podium, more than eight points clear of Tani. Moness was just a point behind in the free skate, meaning his nine-point cushion over Tani in the short program was more than enough take the gold.
Advanced Novice Girls Free Skate
This was hyped up (as much as a challenger series event featuring advanced novice skaters can be “hyped up”) as a showdown between Lia Cho of Canada and Skylar Lautowa-Peguero of the United States. Cho (who it should be mentioned also skated at the senior level in the NQS Cranberry Open and took the top of the podium in that event) was in second after Thursday’s short program, a little less than three points behind Lautowa-Peguero. She performed her free skate medley from the “Romeo & Juliet” soundtrack by Nino Rota and posted a score of 103.12.
Lautowa-Peguero unfortunately wasn’t able to match that, with one slip-up on a jump and a couple of spins that weren’t as clean as they needed to be, posting a 96.27, sliding her into second place. Still, I was impressed by her overall (as I have been every time I’ve seen her skate thus far), and I expect another big season from her in 2025-26.
Junior Women’s Short Program
This event was the highlight of the day for me. I was specifically excited to see Sophie Joline von Felten of the United States, and she did not disappoint, landing a triple axel-triple toe loop combo.
von Felten was actually the second junior woman to perform on Friday, setting the tone (and the standard) for the rest of the day. Her score of 62.21 was just shy of the 62.27 she posted at sectionals last season, and good enough to give her more than a three-point lead after Friday’s action.
Coming up just behind von Felton was Annika Chao of the United States. Skating to “The Carnival of the Animals: The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saens was a strong choice for a skater who is 5-foot-6 and looks even taller. Her movements were so balletic.
Rounding out the top three for the women after Friday’s action was Reese Rose from Canada. Admittedly, I wasn’t that familiar with her coming into the day, but she quickly became a favorite of mine. First, a skater named “Rose” skating in a pink dress is just such on-the-nose perfection (and it helps that pink is my favorite color). Then after skating a wonderful program to “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence and The Machine (a holdover from 2024-25), she had a custom Reese’s Pieces stuffie in the Kiss & Cry (just A+ branding).
Two through six in the standings after the short program are separated by just about five points, so nothing is guaranteed heading into Saturday’s free skate (though I feel confident in saying von Felten will find herself on the podium).
Junior Men’s Short Program
For a while on Friday, it seemed like the junior men were cursed. There was a fall in nearly every program in the first two groups. Then Yanhao Li of New Zealand came along and showed everyone how it’s done.
The defending champ at this event, Li looks like he’s not ready to give up that gold just quite yet.
Actually, this year’s podium could look a lot like last year’s. 2024 silver medalist Jacob Sanchez is at the senior level now, but last year’s bronze medalist, Grayson Long of Canada, is currently in second after Friday’s skate.
Following Long is fellow Canadian Anthony Paradis, who was in fourth a year ago. He was unfortunately one of the “cursed” skaters in the early group, with his score dinged due to a fall. But his energy and performance were off the charts.
He’s more than 13 points behind Li heading into Saturday, so it’d take an incredible comeback (or a classic case of “menning”) for him to overcome that deficit.
One other thing I wanted to note about Friday’s skates before calling it a night: I was pleasantly surprised at the number of Disney songs in the programs. I’d heard that a lot of skaters were having trouble clearing Disney music this season, but that didn’t appear to be the case for this event. Now it’s likely that the clearance issues are only impacting skaters expecting to be in the Olympics or Worlds, but for this Disney fan, it was nice to hear so many familiar songs at this event (even if I’m still recovering from Kaya Tiernan opening the junior women’s event with a skate to “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2, aka the saddest Disney song ever).
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