Simple Mistake Costs La Jolla’s Flack in Pacific Skating

A bizarre love triangle, a simple toe loop and brilliant flashes of light. All shared the ice with figure skater Rory Flack Friday night at the Pacific Coast Championships; the latter two contributed to Flack’s drop from third to fifth in the women’s senior standings.

Flack, 20, was in a most unusual position after compulsory figures and entering Friday’s short program at the San Diego Ice Arena. She was third.

“I’m never that high up,” said Flack, who represents the La Jolla Figure Skating Club. “Usually, I’m in last place going into this round. I felt a lot of pressure, and I didn’t handle it very well.”

Flack skated second to last, before leader Jeri Campbell of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club, and had the full support of the audience, which was watching the only San Diego entrant in this phase of the competition.

“The clapping really got me going,” said Flack, San Diego’s most successful women’s figure skater, “but I’m not really used to it.”

Skating to “Don’t Stop the Rock,” and “Bizarre Love Triangle,” Flack opened with a difficult flying camel and a sit spin, but on her first jump, a single toe loop, she faltered.

“It was a simple toe loop,” Flack complained to her coach of four months, Sally Anderson. “I can usually block misses out, but I’m not used to missing something I’ve done since I was 12.”

Flack finished her routine with no major breaks, but flashes from camera-wielding fans didn’t help her concentration.

“They announced ‘No more flashes,’ after I went,” Flack said. “It threw me off a little.”

Flack’s scores for the required elements were significantly lower than her marks for presentation, but she is convinced she can improve on both going into today’s long program, which makes up 50% of the skaters’ final score.

“I’ll have to skate much stronger,” Flack said. “But my mom always says I’m better when I’m the underdog.”

Skating Notes

This is the first time San Diego has played host to a competition of this caliber. The sectional is one of three that will qualify skaters--the top four in all junior and senior and selected novice divisions--for the U.S. Nationals Feb. 4-11 in Salt Lake City. . . . Holly Cook of the Utah Figure Skating Club moved into first among senior women with a clean, crowd-pleasing routine, with no falls or major breaks. Cook’s high marks moved .20 ahead of Jeri Campbell, who also skated well. The long program is tonight at 6:50. The junior men, led by San Diego’s John Baldwin Jr., skate their long programs beginning at 2:50. . . . San Diego’s Todd Eldredge fell during Thursday’s short program and was third entering the senior men’s long program late Friday. . . . Tristen Vega and Richard Alexander, trained by San Diego’s Richard Callaghan, won the junior pairs.