US men sweep podium for 1st time at junior worlds

MILAN (AP) - Joshua Farris, Jason Brown and Shotaro Omori have a piece of history to go along with their medals from the World Junior Figure Skating Championships.

Farris, Brown and Omori finished 1-2-3 Saturday in the first U.S. sweep of the men's podium at junior worlds. The U.S. women have done it twice, in 2007 and again in 2008. It's the second title for the U.S. team, following the pairs gold by Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier, and gives the Americans five of the nine medals decided so far.

They might not be done yet, either. The women's free skate is later Saturday, and Samantha Cesario and Courtney Hicks were first and third in the short program.

The U.S. men's previous best showing had come back in 1987, when Rudy Galindo won the title, Todd Eldredge was second and Cameron Birky was fourth. Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek were 1-2 in 2001, but the Americans didn't have a third man that year.

But Farris, Brown and Omori showed they were up for the challenge after claiming the top three spots in the short program, and they didn't let up in the free skate. Farris landed the only clean quadruple jump of the day, and Brown won the free skate with a program that was as impressive technically as it was artistically. He landed eight triple jumps including two triple axels, the jump that has long been his downfall. Omori botched a triple axel and a triple loop, but received the maximum level fours for all three of his spins.

No one else could even come close to the Americans, with Jin Boyang of China finishing almost 12 points behind Omori.

Farris finished with a total score of 228.32 points, about four points ahead of Brown. Omori had 204.34 points.