Alysa Liu of US lands quad lutz, wins Junior Grand Prix

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — Alysa Liu became the first American woman to land a quad in competition when she hit her signature quadruple lutz during a dominant free skate to win the Junior Grand Prix on Saturday.

Liu opened her program with the tough triple axel, landed a triple lutz-triple toe combination and then a sequence that included a triple lutz and a triple salchow. The result was a free skate score of 80.14 for the 14-year-old American, nearly 14 points ahead of Yeonjeong Park of South Korea.

Liu also won the short program to finish the Grand Prix with 208.10 points. Park was second with 186.58 points, and Russia’s Anastasia Tarakanova edged South Korea’s Seoyeon Ji by 0.03 points for third.

Only a handful of women have landed quads in competition. Japan’s Miki Ando was the first in 2002, landing a quad salchow at the Junior Grand Prix. Russia’s Alexandra Trusova was the first woman to land the more difficult quad lutz during her free skate at the Junior Grand Prix last year.

In January, Liu became the youngest U.S. women’s figure skating champion in history.