Quesnel figure skating coach Carly Dinicol holds her athletes to a very high standard.
She pushes them to perform at their very best and expects nothing less when they are representing the club at meets across the province.
The first meet of the season took place in Kamloops this weekend (Oct 18-21) and Dinicol was very pleased with what she saw.
“All the skaters who competed at Autumn Leaves hit the ice with the drive and motivation they need to improve their scores over the season,” she says.
Of note in the competition was the Katelynn Grant’s performance. She scored the club’s highest element score, earning a 15.99 for her performance at the Star 5 level, which is perhaps the most challenging level of the star program before skaters move into the competitive stream.
“Katie started skating in the star program three years ago and has moved up at light speed to be in Star 5 already,” Dinicol says, “She’s very committed and has a really good brain about her, so she’s easy to coach.”
Her teammate, Ashley Burke, also excelled, scoring a silver medal in Star 4 Under 13 Group 2.
Dinicol says her performance will see her move up to Star 5 when they club hosts regionals this season.
Last year’s provincial champion, Mitchell Dunn, increased his personal best score by earning an 18.41 in the competitive Juvenile Men group.
Although he finished second, Dinicol says an off season that saw him travel to Prince George three times a week to practice with the Northern BC Centre for Skating is certainly paying dividends.
The club’s performance at the Star 5 level and above was even more impressive considering some new tweaks made by the governing bodies.
“This competition was definitely a challenging one for the kids. The ISU [International Skating Union] has made some changes to the way skaters all over the world are judged with an expanded grade of execution scale, so now skaters have the potential to achieve a score higher or lower than they ever have.”
She explains that jumps, spins, step sequences and spiral sequences are all assigned values in the scale of values. There is a grade of execution attached to each element, which can increase or decrease the total a skater will receive for an element.
For example, an axel jump is worth 1.1 points. A panel of judges will give an element a score ranging from -5 to +5, with each “+” being worth 10 per cent of the original value of the element, and each “-” taking away 10 per cent of the elements value. A -5 will take half the elements base value away, so an axel -5 is worth 0.55, while an axel +5 will add another 50 per cent to the base value and make it worth 1.65.
Full results:
Danica Cherry - Star 1 - Bronze Assessment
Meera Sandhu - Star 1 - Merit Assessment
Violet Hayner - Star 1 - Bronze Assessment
Jayke Petersen - Star 2 -Bronze Assessment
Madison Baker - Star 2 -Bronze Assessment
Molly Leung - Star 2 -Silver Assessment
Jordyn Kronebusch - Star 3 - Silver Assessment
Ashley Burke - Star 4 Under 13 Group 2 - 2nd place
Sophie Hayner - Star 4 Under 13 Group 3 - 8th place
Presley L’Heureux - Star 4 Under 13 Group 3 - 9th place
Jersey L’Heureux - Star 4 13 & Over - 6th place
Katelynn Grant - Star 5 under 13 Group 1 - 9th place
Alexa McTavish - Star 5 13 & Over - 12th place
Baillie Jackson - Star 5 13 & Over - 14th place
Casey Fisher - Star 5 13 & Over - 19th place
Beverley Smetaniuk - Star 6 Group 2 - 17th place
Mitchell Dunn - Juvenile Men - 2nd place
Beverley Smetaniuk - Silver Interpretive - 14th place
sports@quesnelobserver.com
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