The Williams Lake Figure Skating Club posted a strong showing at the Cariboots ‘n Blades competition in Williams Lake on the weekend, gliding its way to 10 medals.
The club, for the second year in a row, secured a bid to host the provincial figure skating meet, held annually between bidding figure skating clubs in the region.
This year’s event featured 160 skaters from around the province, said WLFSC president Wendy Lonson-Hoffman.
“It went awesome,” Lonson-Hoffman said. “We got even more compliments this year from parents and judges than we did last year.”
At the event 13 skaters from Williams Lake performed their routines throughout the weekend in front of steady crowds at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex. Some local skaters even took part, and medalled, in multiple events.
“We did really well,” Lonson-Hoffman said. “There were several golds, silvers and bronzes.”
Skaters were grouped by age and skating level into competitive pools to compete at the three-day event, which ran from Friday to Sunday.
In the primary creative division Amanda Lane and Alanna Walters were awarded gold medals in their respective divisions. Winning bronze was Katie Wiebe, while Jade Johnson finished right behind her club-mate in fourth.
In bronze creative Makinley Erickson took silver, as did Mackenna Alexander, while Brooke Dawydiuk finished sixth.
For preliminary ladies Lane claimed her second gold medal of the weekend, while Wiebe took fourth, Erickson finished fifth and Alexander claimed sixth.
In junior bronze ladies 13 and over it was Dawn Henley skating to a gold medal, and Ashley Beauchamp finishing fourth.
In interpretive, where skaters are required to listen to a song and develop their own short routine, locals also scooped up medals.
Pre-introduction to interpretive winners were Wiebe in second and Dawydiuk in sixth.
In bronze interpretive Beauchamp claimed bronze, with Breanna Davidson winning a gold medal in silver interpretive. Davidson also finished fourth in junior silver ladies.
The team award for most medals went to the Quesnel Figure Skating Club, while the team award for most points went to Kamloops.
Lonson-Hoffman said in addition to skaters attending the event from around the province, the judges should also be recognized.
“The comment I really appreciated from one of the panel judges from Victoria was that he said it was an extremely well organized competition, so that was nice from someone who’s judged all across Canada,” she said.
The other highlight, she added, was seeing the younger skaters receive their medals from Williams Lake Stampede Royalty.
In addition, she said a big thank you is in order to all of the volunteers, judges, spectators and specialists who helped make the event possible.
“We probably have, combined, about 35 volunteers who helped put the event on,” she said. “We had people from outside the club in the community who stepped up, too, which was really neat.
“The community support was also good. We had more spectators this year than we’ve had in the past.”
Next up for the WLFSC is a trip to Quesnel in March for regionals. Following that, skaters will take part in a skills testing day.
