With a new season comes new skills and new routines.
Members of Yukon’s Arctic Edge Skating Club cranked it up a notch to kick off the season at the Autumn Leaves competition last weekend in Kamloops, B.C.
“They all increased their difficulty by attempting new double jumps,” said Arctic Edge coach Trish Pettitt. “They all have new programs in the last month and new skills that they’ve put in, so we’re right on track. It’s the beginning of the year for them and it’s, ‘Let’s go out and get one under our belt and go from there.’
“I was really impressed with all of them and they did very, very well.”
Arctic Edge’s Alissa Russell had the busiest schedule in Kamloops. She captured gold in pre-novice solo dance and then took fourth in pre-juvenile women U13 with a score of 19.01.
Teammate Jamie Nickel placed seventh (18.16) in the same group and Bronwyn Hays took sixth (17.92) in Group 2.
Whitehorse’s Mikayla Kramer skated to eighth out of 24 skaters in novice women, scoring 30.72 in her short and 53.41 in her free.
Anika Kramer grabbed a gold merit medal in the STAR3, a non-competitive category in which medals are awarded on skill assessment.
Arctic Edge’s Rachel Pettitt — the first Yukon skater ever to win a medal at the national championships — withdrew from the senior ladies competition.
“She’s still fighting the anemia, her iron level is still well below where it should be, so it makes it impossible for her to do the long program,” said Trish. “She’s still struggling with it — she’s getting better, but she had to withdraw.”
Rachel and Mikayla are slated to compete at the B.C./Yukon Section Championships Nov. 10-13 in Kelowna.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com