Skaters from the Quesnel Figure Skating Club returned from the Williston Inter-club Freeskate competition, Oct. 21 – 23 in Prince George, with smiles and a ton of hardware.
“It was a great weekend for them,” coach Sharon Chow said.
In all, 11 QFSC skaters attended the competition and they came home with 20 top-five finishes.
Olivia Marleau, who took a bad spill at the previous competition, redeemed herself with first-place finishes in the pre-novice ladies short program and long program, which also earned her the overall gold medal.
“She had good skates this weekend,” coach Jo-Ann Nadalin said.
Marleau also earned a silver medal in senior creative skating.
The weekend results for Marleau put her a full 15 points over the second-ranked skater in British Columbia in pre-novice ladies competition.
Carmen Huang, 13, an eight-year veteran with the QFSC snagged a gold medal in the junior silver ladies freeskate competition, as well as a fourth-place finish in gold interpretive skating.
“She had a really phenomenal skate,” Nadalin said.
In addition to the actual skating, Nadalin was impressed with the way Huang handled the stress of competition, something the skater has had trouble with in the past.
“Watching her skate you wouldn’t know,” Nadalin said of Huang’s demeanour during her performances.
The results were good enough to place Huang third across the province in the junior silver ladies category.
Huang, a Grade 8 student at Quesnel junior school, admitted she was excited and nervous before the competition but skating with a positive attitude and remembering to breath took her mind off the jitters and helped her focus on the task at hand.
“I was thinking about breathing the whole time,” Huang said with a smile.
In addition to completing her jumps, Huang pointed to her spins, lay-back back sit, a death drop and a camel-change-camel, as the best parts of her gold-medal performance.
As for future competitions, Huang is focusing on her jumps, especially her double-toe jump.
“I lost my double-toe jump over the summer,” she said with a shrug of the shoulders.
“I started working on combination jumps and just lost my double-toe.”
In the senior bronze ladies freeskate competition, Cassandra Greenwood collected a silver medal and Kayla Flanagan earned a fifth-place finish.
Jillian Couldwell took gold in junior bronze ladies freeskate competition.
Casey Fisher and Alyssa Brown earned gold and silver medals, respectively in primary elements competition. Brown also earned her silver assessment in the performance program assessments and gold in the beginner showcase.
Fisher also earned a gold assessment in the performance program assessments.
“They’re [gold assessments] tough to get, so that was really good for her,” Nadalin said.
Samantha Mayden skated to a first-place finish in pre-preliminary ladies freeskate competition, as well as a fourth place finish in primary creative skating competition.
Kyra Buchan collected a fourth-place finish in introductory interpretive skating competition, a seventh-place finish in bronze creative skating and a 10th-place finish in preliminary ladies freeskate competition.
“She’s moved up a category this year,” Nadalin said of Buchan.
“She’s facing some very stiff competition.
“All things considered, her skates were good.”
Grace Dunn and Valyce Mamic each earned their silver assessment in the performance program Assessments.
For Nadalin, the Prince George competition was a valuable tool, not only in terms of evaluation, showing the skaters where they were in their development, but also in terms of the mechanics of a competition.
“For several of the skaters this was their first competition of the season,” Nadalin said.
“So it reminded them what it was going to be like for the rest of the season.”
The QFSC is now focused on sectional competitions this weekend in Kelowna. Kina Ellison and Olivia Marleau are making the trip.
