Seven members of the Skate Yorkton figure skating club recently attended the Saskatchewan Provincial competition (Skate Canada Saskatchewan Sectionals) held at Melville's Horizon Credit Union Centre from November 14-16.
All seven competitive skaters came away from the Provincial competition with personal bests as Drew Martinook finished eighth overall in the U11 Pre-Juvenile Ladies division, Kaitlyn Klemetski finished fifth in the U14 Pre-Juvenile Ladies division and Jada Maduck finished 15th overall in the U14 Juvenile Ladies category.
Raegan Exner's seventh place finish in Novice Ladies was a career best for her as was Jessica Pastachak's third place podium finish in the Junior Ladies event.
Sydney Kotzer and Nicki Nagy also put forth career bests as both Kotzer and Nagy took home the gold medal in their respective divisions with Kotzer finishing first in the U11 Juvenile Ladies and Nagy taking top spot in the Pre-Novice Ladies category.
"I'm pretty proud of all of our girls," said Skate Yorkton coach Susan Nagy Monday afternoon. "We only have seven competitive girls, but they all did extremely well and to come away from Provincials with two champions and a third place out of seven girls, that's pretty good.
"I would say that Yorkton is looked at as a pretty elite club in the skating ranks."
Champions
Two members of the Skate Yorkton club took home gold medals and first place finishes from the Provincial competition.
10-year-old Sydney Kotzer and 14-year-old Nicki Nagy both excelled at their routines, impressing the judges enough to be named Provincial champions in the U11 Juvenile Ladies (Kotzer) and Pre-Novice Ladies (Nagy) categories.
For Kotzer, who is also the youngest member of the Sask First Provincial Team, her first Provincial championship means that she'll now be invited to skate as a guest skater at Skate Saskatchewan Stars on Ice Bursary Show in Warman May 9; a figure skating show that highlights all of the Provincial champions from Saskatchewan as well as skaters from the three Provincial teams.
Nagy is also invited to the Skate Saskatchewan Stars on Ice show in Warman by virtue of not only winning the Pre-Novice Ladies division, but also because she is a member of the Saskatchewan High Performance Provincial team.
However that's not all that Nagy has been invited to. "Nicki is now the Skate Canada Saskatchewan Pre-Novice champion," offered Nagy's coach and mother Susan Nagy. "That has also earned her a spot in the 2015 Skate Canada Challenge, which for the Pre-Novice category is their National championship."
This will be the third time that Nicki Nagy will be taking part in the Skate Canada Challenge, however this time she'll be going there not as an underdog, but as a highly ranked skater. "After this past weekend (the Provincial championship) Nicki has the third highest score ranking in Canada so that's kind of exciting leading into the Challenge," mentioned her mother, mentor and coach, continuing, "Her score is 89.91 and that's the third highest in Canada in Pre-Novice ladies. So the top scorer is from BC and the second girl is from Quebec and Nicki has the third highest score so that is kind of exciting."
According to coach Susan Nagy, qualifying for the 2015 Skate Canada Challenge, which will take place in Pierrefonds, Quebec, (a former city absorbed by Montreal in 2002) has been a long time coming for Nicki, as she started her training in the middle of June with the hopes of not only making it to this competition, but with the hopes of being named to the Canada Games team as well. "For Nicki it's been a really long season," suggested Susan Nagy. "We started training for the competitive season back in June. So the training started in Calgary, then she was in Kelowna, then the first competition was in Winnipeg. Then she went to Edmonton and Ontario twice.
"It's been a long season preparing for this with the ultimate goal of Canada Games. So to watch her develop and keep her focus, I'm proud of that. When you're at an elite level like she is, anything can happen. This is all a mental game so to watch and observe how she has mentally stayed strong, that's good."
The Skate Canada Challenge competition will take place from December 3 to 7 in Pierrefonds, Montreal, Quebec.
