by Anne Calder | Photo by Daphne Backman

The 2025 National Figure Skating Championships were held from January 20-26 at the INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas. Eleven junior teams competed. Ten qualified at the Ice Dance Final.  Elliana Peal & Ethan Peal earned a bye after qualifying for the 2024 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final.

Junior Rhythm Dance was the final event of the first evening. The teams skated to “Social Dances and Styles of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s.” The Pattern Dance required 2 Sequences of the Paso Doble.

The leaderboard after the Rhythm Dance included: (1) Hana Marie Aboian & Daniil Veselukhin, (2) Elliana Peal & Ethan Peal, (3) Olivia Ilin & Dylan Cain, (4) Emily Renzi & William Lissauer (5) Caroline Mullen & Brendan Mullen.

Hana Marie Aboian & Daniil Veselukhin held a slim lead with a 65.00 score for their dance to “Heart of Glass” by Blondie and “Knock on Wood” by Amii Stewart. The twizzles and lift earned level 4.The team trains in Newington, CT with Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov.

Elliana Peal & Ethan Peal danced to “Boogie Shoes” by KC and the Sunshine Band and “Dance to the Music” by Sly and the Family Stone. The 64.23 score had them in a close second place spot. The twizzles and lift earned level 4. The siblings train in Nashville, TN with their father, Robert Peal and Bianka Szijgyarto.

Olivia Ilin & Dylan Cain scored 57.54 for their dance to “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind & Fire, “Heart of Glass” by Blondie and “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer. The team trains in Rockville, MD with Olivia’s father, Dmytri Ilin.

Emily Renzi & William Lissauer danced to “Shake a Tailfeather” by Ray Charles and The Blues Brothers and “Think” by Aretha Franklin. The program scored 56.67. The team trains in Little Falls, NJ with Kristen Fraser-Lukanin and Igor Lukanin.

Caroline Mullen & Brendan Mullen”s Bee Gees medley dance to “Stayin’ Alive, “Night Fever” and “You Should Be Dancing” scored 56.41. The team trains in Rockville, MD with Dmytri Ilin and Ruslan Goncharov.

FREE DANCE

The Free Dance began with Hana Marie Aboian & Daniil Veselukhin in the lead by .77 points. 

Throughout the evening several teams had unfortunate mistakes and falls that led to changes in the final placements.

The 2025 Junior Ice Dance Podium: Hana Marie Aboian & Daniil Vesulukhin (gold), Elliana Peal & Ethan Peal (silver) Caroline Mullen & Brendan Mullen (bronze), and Michelle Deych & Ryan Hu (pewter)

Aboian & Veselukhin’s ethereal interpretation of “Clarinet Concerto in A major K.622/II,” “Piano Concerto No.21 in C major K.467/II” and “Symphony no.40 in G minor – Molto Allegro” composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart scored 97.40.

The 2024 Dallas Classic, 2024 Lake Placid International (Junior) and 2025 US Ice Dance Final (junior) winners scored 162.40 and added another gold medal to their resume.

Aboian and Vesulukhin found each other on Partner Search and began skating together in December 2023. The team shared their thoughts on the U.S. Championship debut.

“It is one of my favorite programs,” Aboian said. “I had tears of joy at the end.”

“It’s a very special moment for us as a couple,” Vesulukhin added. “This is our first season, and we love our work. We are grateful to be here and to present ourselves and show our best. We really enjoyed our skate today.”

Aboian explained the program’s theme. “So we were originally going towards the classical side. Originally the concept was of the earth with the flower moving with the wind, but we intertwined it with the idea of a ballet.  Because of his long lines and our speed and my ballet background, it definitely helps enhance the program. So we went towards a ballet representation of the wind and flower concept.”

Elliana & Ethan Peal danced to music from the Pearl Harbor soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, earning a third place 88.77 score and a total 153.00.

Unfortunately, the ISU JGP Wuxi gold medalists fell below their season and personal best free dance and total scores. The team will be moving to the senior level for the 2025-2026 season.

Ethan Peal shared his thoughts on their Free Dance. “The skate was honestly everything we wanted. We put everything we could into the performance. Part of the sport is getting judged on your performance, but we touched a lot of people’s hearts with this performance, and we are proud of that.” 

Caroline & Brendan Mullen’s light and airy seamless presentation of “La Terre vue du ciel” [Earth From Above] by Armand Amar and Karl Hugo and arranged by Hugo Chouinard scored 92.10. The two-time 2024 JGP medalists totaled 148.51.       

The Mullen siblings explained the idea of the Free Dance program as a preparation for their move to seniors next season and their motivation to continue to focus on the passion they share for the sport.

“Our last season in junior, we chose this program to try and show our maturity,” Brendan said. “We wanted to move to senior with a strong performance showing that we have the senior quality.”

Caroline added, “We will take time to look at and reflect on this season – learn from the good things we did and also some of the mistakes we made. We both have such a strong passion for the sport and for working with each other.  Creating something we make together is special and unique. We have a passion for that and want to continue.”

Michelle Deych & Ryan Hu’s total 135.45 vaulted them from sixth to fourth place and the pewter medal. The free dance scored 79.96 with music from Romeo and Juliet by Abel Korzeniowski. The 2024 U.S. Championships novice silver medalists train in Novi, MI with Igor Sphilband’s team.

After taking a break for personal reasons, the team reunited with just ten practice days left before the 2025 U.S. Ice Dance Final in late November.

Deych and Hu spoke about the transition from novice to junior and their current and future goals.

“Juniors is a lot harder,” Deych noted.  “As for our [immediate] goal, it was to get here in the first place, and we’re real happy to be here, no matter how we skated. We could have skated better obviously.”

“The second half of the season went down hill, so we’re just happy to be back together performing in front of everyone,” Hu said. “Our goal for next season is to skate errorless. We also hope to get two Junior Grand Prix assignments.”

“The hardest part right now is to get a hold of our nerves,” added Deych.

The 2025 World Junior Championships assignments:

Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veseluhkin
Caroline Mullen and Brendan Mullen
Katarina Wolfkostin and Dimitry Tsarevski

Alternate 1: Elliana Peal and Ethan Peal
Alternate 2: Olivia Ilin and Dylan Cain 
Alternate 3: Michelle Deych and Ryan Hu