Ilia Malinin Defends Title at Skate America; Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel Win in Pairs Competition

Malinin scores career high with near-flawless performance, while Hocke and Kunkel secure first Grand Prix win for Germany since Savchenko and Massot.

Ilia Malinin defended his Skate America title with a career-best score of 310.47, performing a near-flawless free skate where he landed four quads and seven jump sequences without any mistake.
Despite Malinin's own criticisms of his performance, he significantly outperformed second-place Kevin Aymoz of France and Shun Sato of Japan, who scored 279.09 and 247.50 points, respectively.
In the pairs competition, Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel became the first German team to win a Grand Prix event since Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, scoring 184.23 points.
Hocke and Kunkel's performance wasn't flawless as Hocke fell on their side-by-side triple salchow, but their composed performance otherwise led them to their win, despite close competition from Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud of Canada who scored 182.59 points.
In the rhythm dance, reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates took the lead with 84.87 points, performing a mashup of Queen songs, showing their preparation coming off an Olympic season.