Cranberry Cup Entries Announced
The ISU Challenger Series event will take place Aug. 7-10; tickets went on sale this morning
It seems like we were just at the 2025 World Championships in Boston, watching Alysa Liu shock the world, but the 2025-26 figure skating season is already here.
The first ISU Challenger Series event is a little more than two weeks away, and Tuesday was a big day for the Cranberry Cup International. Tickets went on sale Tuesday morning, but even before that happened, the ISU dropped the entry lists for the senior men and senior women who’ll be competing in Boston next month.
Senior Men
Donovan Carrillo, Mexico
Semen Daniliants, Armenia
Luc Economides, France
Stephen Gogolev, Canada
Mark Gorodnitsky, Israel
Tomoki Hiwatashi, United States
Liam Kapeikis, United States
Kai Kovar, United States
Nikita Krivosheyev, Kazakhstan
Tamir Kuperman, Israel
Jaekeun Lee, Korea
Juheon Lim, Korea
Jimmy Ma, United States
Daniel Martynov, United States
Roman Sadovsky, Canada
Jacob Sanchez, United States
Jared Sedlis, United States
Aleksandr Selevko, Estonia
Artur Smagulov, Kazakhstan
Lev Vinokur, Israel
Jimmy Ma, the hometown hero, won bronze at this even a year ago, starting off a season in which he ended up winning bronze at Four Continents, easily the biggest win of his career so far. He was fifth at nationals last year, which puts him on the outside of the Olympics picture at the moment, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility to think that a strong season, especially if he gets off to a good start here, could propel him into contention.
Jacob Sanchez won silver here a year ago in juniors while splitting the season between the junior and senior levels (he was the Junior Grand Prix Final gold medalist, and finished seventh at nationals as a senior).
Last year’s gold medal winner, Lucas Broussard, is not in the field, but silver medalist Luc Economides returns, hoping to land one of France’s spots in the Olympics (France currently has two spots guaranteed for men, with a chance to qualify for one more at the qualifying event in Beijing).
WHO I’M MOST EXCITED TO SEE: Donovan Carrillo, Mexico. Ma would be the easy choice, and to be clear I am excited to see him, but I fell in love with Carrillo’s style at worlds last year, and to get to see him skate in person again — this time with a much closer seat — will be a treat.
Senior Women
Victoria Alcantara, Australia
Andrea Astrain Maynez, Mexico
Marietta Atkins, Poland
Simona Bhasin, Australia
Sophia Natalie Dayan, Argentina
Michelle Di Cicco, Argentina
Brooke Gewalt, United States
Sonja Hilmer, United States
Sienna Kaczmarczyk, Australia
Minchae Kim, Korea
Dimitra Korri, Greece
Petra Lahti, New Zealand
Josephine Lee, United States
Isabeau Levito, United States
Andra Montesinos Cantu, Mexico
Alejandra Osuna Tirado, Mexico
Olivia Elin Phillips, Sweden
Mya Li Poe, Taiwan
Katie Shen, United States
Jia Shin, Korea
Jolanda Vos, Netherlands
Isabeau Levito returns to Boston, where she won bronze a season ago, looking to get off to a strong start to a potential Olympic season. As one of the three women who represented the U.S. at worlds last season, she would seem to be in good position to get one of Team USA’s three spots, but it’s not a guarantee, as the U.S. has a number of strong contenders looking to jump ahead of her in line.
One of them, Josephine Lee, won silver in this event at the junior level in 2023, leading to a season in which she also won silver at nationals in 2024, one spot above Levito on the podium. Lee slipped to seventh at nationals last season, and will be looking to get off to a strong start this year, as she prepares to make that Olympic push.
Jia Shin has been competing at junior Grand Prix level for a few years now and she will be making her senior GP debut later this season at the Cup of China. She won silver at junior worlds each of the past four seasons and won silver at nationals in Korea last season (after having won gold each of the previous two seasons).
Not returning to Boston are last year’s gold medalist, Sarah Everhardt, and last year’s silver medalist, Elyce Lin-Gracey, meaning the podium is wide open.
WHO I’M MOST EXCITED TO SEE: There are so many good options in this field, but I cannot wait to see Sonja Hilmer skate in person for the first time. She’s not just an incredible skater, but is also an amazing artist (her original piece for the “Legacy on Ice” poster is hanging in my house). She shared the process of designing and creating her own costume for her short program on Instagram, and even choreographs her own programs. Also, she decided she wanted to skate as a young child after seeing it in a Muppets book, which, I mean, come on that’s just incredible.