Hilton HHonors Skate America concluded Sunday in Kent/Seattle, Washington with the Free Dance and the Ladies Free Skating. Skate America was the first of six events in the 2012/2013 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series.

Meryl Davis/Charlie White (USA) dance to victory
Meryl Davis/Charlie White of the USA danced to victory. Russia's Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev claimed the silver medal and Kaitlyn Weaver/Andrew Poje of Canada settled for the bronze.

Dancing to Notre Dame de Paris, Davis/White showed fast-paced footwork and innovative lifts. The World silver medalists picked up a level four for five elements, but the circular step sequence garnered a level two. The 2011 World Champions scored 104.89 points which added up to 176.28 points overall.Charlie and I felt like our performances went quite well today. We had a couple little technical glitches here and there. We're definitely looking to get our technical scores much higher. Overall, it was a good start to the season and we're on track to accomplishing our goals on the ice. We are thrilled with our performances and thrilled to perform them here at Skate America, Davis commented.

Bobrova/Soloviev put out a strong performance to Man with a Harmonica and Tosca as well. The Russian Champions earned a level four for six elements and a level three for the two step sequences to score 97.04 points. With a total of 159.95 points, they pulled up from third to second. We are very pleased that in such a high level competition with such strong rivals we were able to control our nerves and finish with a high placement. With each competition so far, we've been improving and we're getting better each time. Today's program, I think we can still improve a lot, Soloviev noted.

Weaver/Poje portrayed a sculptor dancing with a come-to-life statue to Humanity in Motion by Nathan Lanier. The 2012 Four Continents bronze medalists impressed with their lifts, but the footwork and the combination spin were graded a level two. Weaver/Poje collected 91.53 points for their Free Dance and dropped to third at 157.32 points. Andrew and I are disappointed with our free dance today to say the least. Several of the minor mistakes ended up adding up in the end and we had a low technical score. Luckily, those are the easy things to fix. We are no strangers to going home and reworking little things to make sure we make the most of our technical score, Weaver told the press.

Lynn Kriengkrairut/Logan Giuletti-Schmitt (USA) finished fourth with a dance to songs by Adele (141.41 points). Nelli Zhiganshina/Alexander Gazsi (GER) remained in fifth with a Zombie program (132.57 points).

Ashley Wagner (USA) skates off with the gold
In the Ladies event, Ashley Wagner (USA) skated off with the gold medal. Christina Gao (USA) took the silver and the bronze went to Russia's Adelina Sotnikova.

Performing to Samson and Delilah, Wagner produced six triple jumps and a level-four layback spin to earn 127.76 points. She accumulated 188.37 points overall and took home her first gold medal on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.Today went exactly as planned. I really fought for some of those jumps, but I was pleased with what I put out. The quality of the program overall has improved since Japan Open, the reigning Four Continents Champion said. After the short program, I definitely thought that it was plausible to win the whole event. It was a good and bad thing because I started to worry about it. I was happy that I was able to go out there and keep my nerves under control and stay focused on what I wanted to accomplish. For my first Grand Prix gold medal , it's a good day for me, she added.

Gao turned in a solid Tango routine, landing six triples as well. The Harvard student scored 117.62 points and moved up to second at 174.25 points to win her first medal on the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. I'm really happy with how I did. I think I put out a really good performance. It's really pretty much how I've been training, and that's what I kept telling myself before my performance. I just said, ˜do it like at home, do it like normal,' and that's what I did, Gao commented.

Sotnikova opened her program to At Last and Burlesque with a triple Lutz-triple toe combination and a triple flip, but later missed her second triple flip and did one combination too many. The 2012 World Junior bronze medalist picked up 110.03 points and slipped to third at 168.96 points. I'm very pleased that I did the triple-triple combination. I really wanted to do that. I'm completely unhappy about missing that second triple flip and about doing an extra combination, the 16-year-old noted.

Valentina Marchei (ITA) moved up one spot to fourth at 158.79 points and Haruka Imai (JPN) finished fifth with 157.72 points. Reigning World silver medalist Alena Leonova (RUS) placed 7th after two sub-par performances (153.49 points).

For full results please see Entries/Results

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series continues next week with Skate Canada International in Windsor, Ontario (CAN).