Cranston's Marissa Castelli and her partner on ice, Simon Shnapir, are in the lead after skating in front of a hometown crowd at the 2014 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Boston last night.
Castelli and Shnapir lead the pairs event after delivering their best short program performance of the season with a score of 73.13.
They lead last year's bronze medalists Felicia Zhang and Nathan Bartholomay, who scored 66.50.
The pairs program will conclude on NBC Saturday night.
You can watch the event live by visiting http://web.icenetwork.com/home.
Castelli and Shnapir skated to Santana's "Black Magic Woman" and "Smooth" and were buoyed by the clamoring crowd of local supporters in the audience. The two have trained and practiced for eight years near the TD Garden as members of the Skating Club of Boston.
"Props to the crowd," Shnapir said. "It was more than we could have asked for. It's kind of humbling, actually, to know how many people were cheering us on."
The duo nailed their opening triple twist and promptly landed a side-by-side triple Salchows.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
