I've posted some of these photos before, but in the interest of keeping them in order, some of the photos are re-posted in the sequence of the events. Names are listed in the order of Gold, Silver and Bronze, not how they line up in the photo.
DAY ONE 
Ladies Time Trial Winners: Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick and Allison Baver.
Katherine gives Allison the 'thumbs up'.
Men's Time Trial Winners: Apolo, J.R. Celski and Anthony Lobello.
(The rest of the day didn't go that well for Anthony. One picture - or look, as the case may be - is worth a thousand words, isn't it?)
Ladies 1500m Winners: Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick and Jessica Smith.
Men's 1500m Winners: Apolo, Jeff Simon and J.R. Celski
DAY TWO
Ladies 500m Winners: Kimberly Derrick, Maria Garcia and Alyson Dudek.
(I spoke briefly to Alyson on Sunday after the competition. It really does speak to how dedicated the skaters are, and how hard they are on themselves. After being on the World Cup Team this fall, she was clearly disappointed at not being able to make the team for the spring. This is Alyson's first year making a Senior Team, and viewed in that light, I think she's doing
great! ) Chin up, girl. You've got a bright future ahead of you, even though it may seem it's not happening as fast as you would like.
Men's 500m Winners: Travis Jaynor, Jordan Malone and Apolo.
What a wild ride that race was! No words could adequately describe it. But it is telling when Apolo's competitors are booing the DQ. Jordan came across the line first in race one and he was Apolo's biggest supporter on booing the DQ. On round two he ended up in second, and seemed happy to be there. You can't beat this guy for good nature, he's always a 'Happy Camper'.
Anyone who has met Travis knows he is just as nice as can be. We came off the elevator just as he was giving the AJ ladies a lesson on his boots, the jig and ST - much the way the Winslows did for us last year. Mind you, it was about 11pm. Given what we hear about the skaters strict time regiman, I couldn't help but ask him
"Isn't it past your bedtime?" 
(Hey, you can take the girl away from the smart ass, but ya can't take the smart ass out of the girl....but then again....YOU already knew that, didn't you?!) DAY THREE
Ladies 1000m Winners: Katherine Reutter, Kimberly Derrick and Jessica Smith. (and didn't Jessica do well at this competition? - out-skating some of the vets. She must be doing something right! Good for her.)
Men's 1000m Winners: Apolo, J.R. Celski and Ryan Bedford.
(Do you think J.R. is thinking as he studies the Missouri flag. " It says 'The Show Me State'. Well -
Show me what???" )
Ryan also skates Long Track and those Nationals are going on even as we speak. If he places on the team, I wonder which discipline he'll pick, given that I don't think he can be two places at one time! I mean, seriously, I know the skaters are
amazing, but I don't think they can pull
THAT one off ...
The Ladies 3000m Winners: Katherine Reutter, Allison Baver and Kimberly Derrick. These 3 are just the 'tried and true', aren't they? Allison's overall finish last weekend was a bit of a shock, as the ladies team is so consistent, we already
think we know who all the players are going to be. We thought wrong, didn't we? Both the Ladies and Men's team had a bit of a shake up.
Men's 3000m Winners: Apolo, J.R. Celski and Jordan Malone.
(and just so you think he wasn't a happy camper by the look on his face...here's another shot of Mr. - Happy - Go - Lucky.)
(...I still miss the penguins....)
Ladies Overall Champions: Katherine Reutter defends her title for the second year in a row, Kimberly Derrick and Jessica Smith.
Men's Overall Champions: Apolo defends his title for the nice, round number of 10, J.R. Celski and Jeff Simon.
Team USA:
Back Row: Lana Gehring, Allison Baver, Katherine Reutter, Jessica Smith and Kimberly Derrick.
(Kimberly needs to lose the hat, it's bigger than she is, and made it impossible to get a nice shot of her beautiful smile and pretty face.
... that's merely my 
)
Front Row: Ryan Bedford, Jeff Simon, Apolo, J.R. Celski and Jordan Malone.
(With so many favorite skaters, how do you pick the top 3 anyway???
I can't. After coming off of injury and only being back on the ice for a short while, Jordan was thrilled just to make the team. Once again - he's one 'Happy Camper'.
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Now for The Rocker Fund Skaters.
Lezleigh Jaworski (#26) - 'goes to the start'.......
Reeeaaaaadddddy.Lezleigh finished 12th overall and is part of the strong team of skaters coming out of Southern California. She said her skating isn't quite where she wants it to be yet, but she is dedicated to 'keep on - keepin' on'. More importantly she is as nice as can be and I'm proud to support her as one of our Rocker Fund skaters.
Barry Winslow skating in an 'A' final with the 'Big Guns'. Barry finished 10th overall, and that's pretty good considering how deep the Men's team is getting. Still, Barry would like to perform at a higher level (finding himself in 'A' finals all the time!) and is pushing for tougher coaching to make him a better skater. As a TRF supporter, we can help him get it!
Barry makes his move. Jeff Simon, (TRF skater for December) is right behind him.
I met Jeff outside the rink as I was coming in. He grimaced just opening the door. "How are you feeling?", I asked. "Awful", he replied. I told him we were all rooting for him, and really - how can you not when a skater is in this much obvious agony and still goes out and gives it his all. Jeff, You're all heart!
Jonathan Sermeno leads the pack. Jonathan finished 11th overall for the Seniors and will be on the Junior Team that competes in Canada in January.
Jonathan is pretty shy, so getting a few words out of him can be a little tough. Too funny though, when I was talking to Jeff's dad Howard and Jean Uyehara (Kyle's mom) that they said they had known him all his life, and THEY couldn't get him to talk much either! Too cute.
Jonathan doesn't come from a wealthy family, and your donations do help, even if it's in a small way, toward the skaters being able to skate to their best ability.
(The rest of TRF: All my pictures of Morgan came out blurry - sorry Morgan - and Kyle Uyehara didn't make the time trials cut off.
I did finally get to meet Kyle, though - and his mom Jean did join GA just so she could Thank You all that donated to Kyle while he was 'Skater of the Month'.
Anthony Barthell decided to sit this one out, as they are having coaching issues and he didn't feel he was skating well enough at the moment to justify entering. Better to get his coaching and skating to a place he can feel proud of. (...but Anthony - you were missed)
Dan Fiorenza wasn't there either, but unfortunately, I don't know why.
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END OF 'MEGA' POST. I had put all this on TRF and decided to do the same here since GA is more of the main 'news' area, so to speak.
;D
~Lori
