SAN JOSE, CALIF. • Meryl Davis and Charlie White spent years chasing Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto. Now Davis and White are the ones being chased.
Not that anyone has a chance of catching them.
The world champions showed once again why they're the gold standard in ice dance these days, routing the competition on their way to a fourth straight title at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday. Their final score of 191.54 points was nearly 13 points ahead of siblings Maia and Alex Shibutani, who aren't exactly slouches as the reigning world bronze medalists.
Davis and White were so dominant, their free dance score — 114.65 points — was higher than the total scores for the bottom three couples.
"I would say both are difficult," White said when asked if it was harder to be the hunter or the hunted. "Of course, when we were coming up, Ben and Tanith set the standard for American ice dance and we were chasing them. That really helped push us. Now we've got the Shibutanis behind us and they also really help push us. In some ways it's different but in some way it's the same."
Davis and White haven't lost a competition since finishing second to Vancouver Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir at the 2010 world championships, upstaging their Canadian rivals at both last year's worlds and again at the Grand Prix final last month.
Keep skating this way, and Virtue and Moir are going to have to do something pretty spectacular to catch the Americans, their training partners and close friends.
"Charlie and I feel really great about both of our performances here at nationals," Davis said. "We felt like we accomplished our goal for this competition, which was leaving it all out on the ice and feeling like we achieved a new comfort level with both programs as well as a higher level of performance."
Davis and White had such a big lead — 4.28 points after the short dance — and are so far ahead of everyone else in the United States that they could simply have stroked around the rink and probably still won. But the duo put on a show worthy of their status as world champions, the first Americans to hold the title.
Unlike so many other couples, whose programs are a series of elements needing to be checked off, Davis and White skate as ice dance was meant to be done. One element flows right into another, the entire program a seamless performance. The lean of their bodies was matched perfectly and their edge quality is magnificent, carving deep, crisp patterns into the ice that look like a piece of art.
Their speed was breathtaking and their lifts innovative — she was in the full splits during the rotational lift, when he is spinning like a whirling dervish.
Even their mistakes were impressive. White got a little wobbly on their first set of twizzles — traveling spins — yet not only managed to hang on, but stayed in unison with Davis.
The audience was so delighted with the program they were clapping along midway through.
"It was great crowds both for the short dance and the free dance," White said. "That's really nice for us to see. If anything, it makes our performances better. There is quite a bit of momentum and I think we're taking it in the right direction."
The Shibutanis train with Davis-White and Virtue-Moir in the Detroit area, but they have a style all their own. But the Shibutanis, who also were runners-up last year, are not in Davis and White's class. Not yet, at least.
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue were a distant third in their first appearance at nationals, but they showed promise with their sultry routine to "I Put a Spell on You." Hubbell had skated the previous 10 years with her brother, Keiffer, winning U.S. titles at the juvenile, intermediate and junior levels.
"I can't be happier with how our first year has gone and I'm looking forward to building upon that," Hubbell said.
