The penultimate day of the 2017 U.S. Figure Skating Championships featured the best the event had to offer with the championship classes taking center ice.
While the earlier schedules of the event featured some of the brightest young stars of tomorrow, Saturday boasted some of the finest figure skaters in the world right now.
Here are the day's results:
The day was headlined by the triumphant return of Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier, who became American pairs champions on Saturday night.
Last year was lost due to Denney undergoing season-ending knee surgery, but the pair made up for it in 2017 thanks to a big performance in the free skate.
As the second leg of a two-event competition, Denney and Frazier entered Saturday night in second behind Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc after posting a score of 65.39 in the short program.
They were given an even larger boost when this year's favorites, Tarah Kayne and Daniel O'Shea, were forced to withdraw.
As the final pairing of the competition, Denney and Frazier weren't perfect, as they narrowly averted disaster when Denney stumbled on a throw triple salchow.
But the two managed to compose themselves and post a score of 122.93 for a final score of 188.32, two points better than second-place Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran.
Denney spoke with the Associated Press (h/t FoxSports.com):
My partner and I worked so hard to be back to this point and it means a lot to us. Things felt like we had to fight for them. Sometimes we do elements that are like so easy. Of course you like want that perfect performance where it feels like that in nationals. Even though it didn’t feel like that, I’m so like, I’m very happy that we fought through it.
In the championship dance, Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani held on for a one-point victory to take the U.S. title, while Karen Chen took home gold in the championship ladies competition.
Just one day of figure skating remains in Kansas City, Missouri, as the championship men's free skate will surely end the festivities on a high note, beginning at 2 p.m. ET.