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U.S. Figure Skating Championships: Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker are the new leaders

By Helene Elliott
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CLEVELAND -- Defending U.S. pairs champions Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker made a few mistakes in their short program to ‘Malaguena’ but managed to edge past Rena Inoue and John Baldwin to lead the competition with one group still to skate.

Brubaker stumbled on their side-by-side jumps and McLaughlin stepped out of the landing on their throw but the pair got 61.12 points, .01 ahead of Inoue and Baldwin.

McLaughlin, 16, was born in Tarzana and grew up in Los Angeles but now trains in Colorado Springs with Brubaker. Her mother, Le’ Ina, who doubles as one of the couple’s coaches, said Keauna had been ill earlier in the week with the flu and a 102-degree temperature.

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‘We’ve been just battling to get her body back to where it needs to be,’ Le’ Ina said. ‘I think it’s a good start. They’ve never been in a position to defend anything. I think it was good that they didn’t give up and they kept fighting through the program.... I’m very proud of them and the fact that they’re really fighting this week.’

-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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