The 2026 Pacific Coast Sectional Singles & U.S. Ice Dance Final was held at the America First Center November 02-05, 2025 in Henderson, Nevada. Twelve Juvenile, eleven Intermediate, twelve Novice, thirteen Junior and twelve Senior teams competed.

For the third season, the five highest scoring Novice teams are invited to compete earlier in the week at the U.S. Championships. Twelve Junior teams will join them for the event competition at the Centene Community Center in the northwest St. Louis, MO suburb of Maryland Heights.

Each team skated two pattern dances:

Juvenile: Fourteenstep / U.S. Willow Waltz
Intermediate: European Waltz / Rocker Foxtrot
Novice: Starlight Waltz / Quickstep

2026 Juvenile Medalists:

Gold: Sophia Zhou & Skyler Kay
Silver: Sofia Myers & Henry Malaret
Bronze: Ava Ansari / Cyrus Ansari
Pewter: Rivkah Chavez Herrera & Nikolai Laptev

Juvenile Quick Quotes:

Carter Schopf: It’s been different experiencing all the competitions. I was a free style skater. Going to a Dance competition and seeing what that’s like and the atmosphere. It’s just  such a different outlet.
Julia Robinson: I’ve been wanting to go to the Final for a long time.
Coach Marius Driscoll: I grew up in this atmosphere, but I’m new to the coaching aspect. It’s their first year together. It’s been a really fun time working together.
Sophia Zhou: I’ve been skating since I was four. Skyler and I were partners when we were five. Then we did Solo Dance. We still do Solo Dance. (About the costumes) We skate to Ghostbusters, so they have a backpack (proton pack) on the back to capture ghosts like in the movie.
Coach Mathew Gates: Our team Ariel Running and Gunnar Gates had only been together a couple of weeks when they competed at the Lake Placid Championships. They skate three times a week during the school year. We’re really proud of them. They did amazing in the pattern dance. They were 3rd place in the Willow Waltz.
Gunner Gates: (On progress) Every time we compete it is better.

Intermediate 2026 Final Medalists:

Gold: Lucy Brooks & Jeffrey Li
Silver: Emily Zhou & Kenneth Running 
Bronze: Marina Li & Justin Liao 
Pewter: Ava Reinkensmeyer & Aiden Shen

Intermediate Quick Quotes:

Adam Estandiari: I’m happy! It’s a great improvement score from Challenge Cup.
Ava Dziedzic: I had so much fun!
Coach Lenda: I think they’re doing great in a short time. They’re improving. They’re really fun to work with.
Ava Reinkensmeyer: Our skate was not bad. We had a mistake with the twizzles.
Aiden Shen: We train in the Detroit area. We’ve been partners for five years. I started jumping. I still jump.
Coach Val Katsman: We’ve been working with the team for two and a half years. They’re very hard workers.
Lucy Brooks: I’m very happy.
Jeffrey Li: We worked really hard during the year, and it paid off. The ice was good.
Coach Voyko: I think they did very well. It was a good skate. (About the ice condition)  It’s all mental.

Novice 2026 Final Medalists:

Gold: Rylan Lukanin & Patrick O’Brien 
Silver: Katherine Li & James Zhu 
Bronze: Sophia Kartashov &  Nicholas Kartashov
Pewter: Natalie Leitan & Nathan Leitan 

Novice Quick Quotes:

Campbell Urban: I was a solo dancer before this partnership.
Daniel Dehart: Our team started at the very end of last season. We had our programs and did the Final in Texas, but this is our first full season.
Campbell Urban: The difference between solo and partner dance is you have someone for support. You have another person to communicate with and share..
Rylan Lukanin: (After the Free Dance) That was really good. Compared to our last Free Dance it was a total five points bigger. It was like a flash. I don’t know what really happened. I had fun throughout the whole program. I thought last year was the final time to have the Novice skate at the Championships. I was bummed. Now that I get to go this year, I’m really excited.
Anna Waugh: I’m very grateful that we’re top five and will go to Nationals to skate with the Juniors.
Matthew Jacoby: It’s just like hitting me now. I’m very excited. Our plan is lots of practices. Lots of 
run-throughs. Lots of compulsories.
Coach: Lots of spins and footwork. Improve! Improve! Improve!
Nathan Leitan: We’re excited about going to the Championships. We’ve been doing triple and quadruple run-throughs at home. We do both pattern dances and the free dance in the morning before I go to school. Then double and triples in the afternoon. We’ll continue this to prepare for St. Louis.
Nathan Leitan: (Regarding the up coming assignment to the Budapest Cup) We’ve been to every continent except Europe. This will be a first. We’re excited.
Katherine Li: I’m excited about going to the Championships. I want to do better than what I did today. I want to improve.
James Zhu: I want to improve as well.
Katherine Li: We plan to practice what we didn’t do before, and what we didn’t do today. We need to show more emotion.

ICE CHIPS

The awarding of a pewter medal for fourth place began at U.S. figure skating championships in 1988. It is not given at international events.
Skyler Kay & Sophia Zhou kept the Juvenile Ice Dance Final gold medal in the Kay family for a second straight year. In 2025, Sean Kay & Angela Lang earned gold at the same event in Plano, TX. Sadly, Sean, Angela and both mothers were lost in the AA Flight 5342 tragedy.
Katherine Li / James Zhu (gold) and Rylan Lukanin / Patrick O’Brien (silver) made their Advanced Novice international debut at the Bolero Cup in Sheffield, GBR, September 5-6, 2025.
Rylan Lukanin / Patrick O’Brien and Natalie Leitan / Nathan Leitan (International debut) will compete in Advanced Novice at the Santa Claus Cup in Budapest, HUN, November 28-December 3, 2025.
Nine ice dance sibling teams competed in the JINs.
The top five Novice teams who will compete at the

2026 U.S National Championships event:

Rylan Lukanin & Patrick O’Brien
Katherine Li & James Zhu
Sophia Kartashov & Nicholas Kartashov
Natalie Leitan & Nathan Leitan
Anna Waugh & Matthew Jacoby