Yukon’s Arctic Edge Skating Club didn’t have the largest team of skaters at the 2013 Autumn Leaves competition in Chiliwack, B.C. over the weekend.
But the two club skaters had big results.
Whitehorse’s Rachel Pettitt and Mikayla Kramer each skated to silver in their respective divisions.
Pettitt leapt to silver in novice ladies and Kramer landed silver in pre-juvenile ladies under-11.
“I’m happy with it,” said Pettitt. “They went pretty good. I had a good short. I attempted all my triples and got credit for them.
“In my long, I had some good fight in there. I struggled near the beginning and I pulled it together.”
Pettitt moved up from pre-novice to novice following outstanding results last season. She placed fourth in pre-novice at the Skate Canada Challenge - the division’s national championship - last season in Regina, Sask. Her result marked the highest placement by a Yukoner at the event.
Pettitt qualified for the Challenge nationals after becoming the first Yukoner to win gold at the Skate Canada’s BC/YT Sectional Championships. She also was the first Yukon skater to win B.C.‘s Super Series, a season-long competition that includes Autumn Leaves.
“It really pushed me,” said Petitt, of moving to novice. “I added some harder jumps which are helping.”
Pettitt placed third in the short program and second in the long for an overall score of 90.88 points over the weekend. The 14-year-old, who won silver at the event last year as well, finished behind Vancouver’s Megan Ym.
Kramer went on the ice for her skate as cool as a cucumber, she said.
“I think I had a good skate because I wasn’t really nervous,” said the 10-year-old. “Usually I’m nervous or excited. But I was in the perfect stage. I think it was because I was really confident. I knew I could do it. And also I prepared well.
“I had almost a clean skate. I landed all my jumps except one. And that was my combo jump, so I lost a couple points. But I was still very happy with my skate.
“I basically had all my doubles, except my double-lutz.”
Kramer placed second out of 13 skaters with a score of 24.62, placing behind Kelowna’s Maya Rose. Kramer’s routine had three spins, including a flying spin, that went smoothly. It was the double-lutz that gave her trouble.
“I was really happy. It was a really good skate,” said Kramer. “I was a little disappointed with my double-lutz because they were fairly consistent, but I wasn’t patient enough and I fell. I could have landed it, but I sat down on it.”
Both skaters have been raking in strong results so far this season.
Kramer took third place at B.C.‘s Summer Skate in August and fourth at the Vancouver Island Skate International (VISI) in April.
“I think I’ve made a lot of improvement since VISI,” said Kramer.
Pettitt, who trains at the Kelowna Figure Skating Club in B.C., won bronze at Summer Skate and at the Sask Skate Invitational in Regina at the start of the month.
She also won gold at a competition in Washington State.
She opened the season with a fifth place finish at the Super Series Victoria Day competition in May.
“That was not a good competition for me,” said Pettitt. “It was the beginning of the year and it was a new program.”
Both skaters are now gearing up for the Skate Canada’s BC/YT Sectional Championships next month in Richmond.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com