The Barrhead Figure Skating Club had a successful weekend in Grande Prairie March 22-23 at the North Peace Open Competition, bringing home eight medals.
Just one week after they dazzled Barrhead at their annual Ice Carnaval, several Barrhead Figure Skating Club members headed to Grande Prairie for the North Peace Open Competition.
The girls had a successful trip, bringing home a total of eight medals.
This was a first-time trip to the Grande Prairie competition for some skaters, including Alyssa Albertson. She participated in an intro, interpretive, and senior bronze freeskate competition, and had a blast while doing so.
“Everybody here talks about how much of a team competition it is, and it was really fun,” said Albertson.
Not only did she enjoy the trip, Albertson brought home a gold medal for her interpretive performance and placed fourth in her solo.
“I did a lot better than I usually do,” she smiled.
This isn’t quite the end of the season for the enthusiastic skater, as Albertson will be heading to Edmonton for the three-day Sunsational Competition starting April 11.
Fellow club member ShayLynn Sanderson will also be attending Sunsational. The skater hopes to have a better performing experience there than she did in Grande Prairie, where she placed 6th in her senior bronze freeskate.
“I had bronchitis in Grande Prairie so I did terribly because I couldn’t really breath,” she said. “And my skate came loose while I was skating so it was not my best performance ever.”
Sanderson not only braved the competition feeling under the weather, she performed a routine she had only come up with two weeks earlier.
“So on top of everything, it was a new freeskate solo for me,” she laughed. “Now I’m working on it hard for Sunsational.”
Sanderson wasn’t the only club member to hit some bumps in Grande Prairie. Amanda Horner suffered a knee and finger injury during her time at the competition and placed sixth in her pre-novice short program and long program.
However this was only Horner’s second time doing a competitive skate and, even with her injury, she has already surpassed her previous results.
“I just started competitive,” she said. “My scores were higher than my last competition.”
Horner will also be heading to Sunsational to perform her short and long program, where she will again be skating competitive.
Emma Albers ran into a glitch at the competition as well, when her skating music for one of her routines malfunctioned.
Though the young skater wasn’t happy with her solo and interpretive couples performances, she can proudly display a silver medal for her group routine.
Overall, Albers said the trip was a good one.
“It was my second time going and I like it a lot,” she said. “I had fun.”
Emma Botros, who performed with Albers in the group performance, had an exciting weekend. Not only did she bring home the silver medal for group, she claimed bronze in her solo routine.
“It was my fourth time getting bronze in a competition for my solo, so that makes me really happy,” she said. “ My dad and my mom were so proud and posting everything on Facebook. Posting pictures and all that stuff.”
There were two other gold medal winners in the group of skaters that went to the competition. Katie Magill and Deanna Klein landed first place together in their team routine.
This was Magill’s fourth time traveling to Grande Prairie, a competition she has managed to bring home a medal from every year.
“I’ve always really liked it,” she said. “It’s a fun competition and Barrhead always does really well.”
Klein has also attended the competition on multiple occasions. In addition to landing gold in the team event, she brought home a bronze medal for her solo as well.
“The weekend was amazing,” she said. “I had a good start to the year, then it was pretty rough in the middle, so to end it getting third place is awesome.”
Skaters Jocelyn Smith, Darma Litke, and Darby Heckbert also attended the competition in Grande Prairie. Smith brought home a bronze medal, and both Litke and Heckbert landed a silver medal..
