Grosse Pointe Woods to celebrate Brooke Castile Day

March 4, 2007 — Brooke Castile will be honored on Wednesday, March 21, the day of the pairs free skate at the World Figure Skating Championships, with an official Brooke Castile Day in her hometown of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

The official proclamation of Brooke Castile Day is designed to give Brooke more recognition closer to home, where even some of her neighbors are not aware of her competitive accomplishments this season, while she competes at her first World Championship.

Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Showcase to include Brooke and Ben

February 13, 2007 — Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski will participate in the Marshalls U.S. Figure Skating Showcase on April 6, at the Sovereign Center in Reading, Pa.

Tickets for the showcase go on sale Monday through ticketmaster.com for as low as $15. The tickets can also be purchased at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets or by phone at (215) 336-2000.

Joining Brooke and Ben in the showcase are all the senior gold, silver and bronze medalists from the recent U.S. Championships as well as Olympic silver medalist Sasha Cohen. Additional skaters will be added at a later date.

The event will be broadcast on ABC on April 14.

Brooke and Ben finish fifth at Four Continents

February 8, 2007 — Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski finished fifth at the Four Continents Championship in Colorado Springs, Colo., after a fourth place free skate.

In their Requiem for a Dream program, which set a personal best with 104.92 points, the pair performed their signature high-flying split triple twist. They also landed side-by-side double Axels, the most difficult solo jumps in the program.

"We have a lot of work to do to be in that top 10 (at Worlds)," Brooke said. "We want to work on getting that side-by-side triple toe back, and we need to work on our side-by-side spins and our polish."

The team's overall score of 160.04 shattered their previous best international mark of 132.86 from the Cup of Russia competition in November 2005, where they finished eighth.

"It was strong," she also said about the free skate. "It wasn't our best. Some stuff was a little bit sloppier than we would have liked, but given the circumstances and being here and using this competition as a warm-up for Worlds, it was exactly what we wanted to do.

"We definitely want to start building big time from this to go to Worlds and really work on our polish and finishing and side-by-side elements."

Brooke and Ben will make their first appearance at the World Championships next month in Tokyo, Japan. The pairs short program is set for March 20.

Four Continents short program ends with Brooke and Ben in seventh

February 7, 2007 — Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski are in seventh place after the short program at the Four Continents Championship, their first competition since becoming the U.S. Champions.

"It isn't any different (competing as U.S. champions)," Brooke said. "It is about the skate and not about the title. We have dealt with the turnaround from nationals really well. We look at this as another experience and something to build on."

Despite having problems on their side-by-side double Axels, she singled hers while he two-footed his landing, Brooke and Ben set a personal best in their Shine on You Crazy Diamond program with 55.12 points.

U.S. Figure Skating selects Brooke and Ben for Worlds, Four Continents

January 28, 2007 — Prior to their exhibition performance at the U.S. Championship in Spokane, Wash., Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski were officially named to two spring international teams by the U.S. Figure Skating Association.

The team will compete again in two weeks at the Four Continents Championship in Colorado Springs, Colo. In 2005, Brooke and Ben made their senior international debut by finishing seventh at the event.

The pair will also compete at the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, this March. It is the first time Brooke and Ben will compete at Worlds.

Brooke and Ben crowned U.S. Champions

January 26, 2007 — Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski are the 2007 U.S. Champions.

"It still hasn't sunk in," Ben said.

"This is unbelievable," Brooke said. "It feels great."

Skating to Requiem for a Dream, the eventual champions started strong with a near flawless split triple twist followed by a solid throw triple Salchow, en route to a personal best 118.63 points..

Brooke and Ben, who received only one negative grade of execution, also landed side-by-side double Axel-double toe sequences before nailing a throw triple loop and side-by-side double toe loops.

"It was everything we wanted to do today, and we skated nice and strong," Brooke said. "It felt great to skate like that at nationals. It's like my dream, it felt really good."

It was the best performance the pair has skated all season.

"It's kind of hard to describe because you hope to skate well but it all goes by so fast that you don't pay attention," Ben said. "It just happens and you feel good afterward."

Coach Johnny Johns, who started coaching the team last spring, was surprised the team won the championship despite competition from two-time U.S. Champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, who won silver.

"We were obviously extremely pleased with how they skated," said Johns, who works with choreographer Marina Zoueva. "We figured this was good enough to get a medal. We weren't expecting to get this at all. I am still in shock. Usually this is a two or three year project when you prepare a senior team. We were just trying to lay some groundwork, but they laid it pretty quick."

Johns said he developed a game plan with Brooke and Ben last year.

"They believed in me and I believed in them, and this is like crazy," he said. "They were coming here just trying to get a medal and set the groundwork for next year. They were focused all week. We talked about it last week, just to stay focused that anything can happen, especially with the new system. This is just the beginning for them."

The newly crowned U.S. Champions will likely compete again in two weeks at the Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo., as well as the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in March.

Brooke and Ben in medal position after U.S. Championship short program

January 24, 2007 — Brooke Castile and Benjamin Okolski are in third place at the U.S. Championship in Spokane, Wash., after scoring 59.77 points in the short program.

Skating to Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Brooke and Ben executed an excellent a triple twist and throw triple Salchow. But the team received negative grade of execution on their side-by-side double Axels after Ben stepped out on the landing.

Despite the minor problems, the skate was an improvement for pair, who finished eighth at the event last year.

Brooke and Ben said a change in coaches to Johnny Johns, who coached Marcy Hinzmann and Aaron Parchem to the Olympics last year, has helped the team improve.

They also changed rinks to the Arctic Edge in Canton, Mich.

"It's a lot more comfortable where we are now," Ben said. "We have a lot of skaters who skate at a very high level, and it helps us to train harder and more consistently than we have had in the past."

The pair is also helped by their strong friendship.

"I want people to know that Ben is my best friend and that we are in this for the long haul," said Brooke, who teamed up with Ben following the 2001 Midwestern Sectional Championships.