By NICOLE BIRKHOLD
For The State News
As Sarah Hughes and Michelle Kwan celebrated bringing home two Olympic medals in women’s figure skating last week, some MSU figure skaters prepared to accomplish dreams of their own.
The MSU Figure Skating Club has qualified for the U.S. Synchronized Team Skating Championships this weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y. It will perform the same routine Saturday that it performed Feb. 19 at Munn Ice Arena before the men’s hockey team charity broomball event.
“We have been working on this since August,” said Kellie Scopel, the club’s vice president and a pre-law sophomore. “It takes a long time to put together.”
The team starts competing in November and continues through March, Scopel said.
Besides using a coach and a choreographer to help put together its winning routines, the team also brings in a woman from the Rockettes in New York to help with the synchronization and various formations.
Wearing dramatic black costumes and dark makeup, 24 skaters appear on the ice during performances, skating in sync to various genres of music.
“We compete against an intercollegiate conference made up of about six teams from the Midwest,” Scopel said. “We have placed first in all but two of our competitions this year, so that is really good.”
The skaters took third place at the synchronized nationals after placing third in many conference meets.
A big reason for the improvement in the team is the number of ladies who tried out for the group, team member Lauren Hickson said.
“So many more people tried out this year,” the zoology junior said. “We could pick from better skaters, some who have skated synchro before.”
Many of the team members have been skating nearly as long as America’s Olympic skaters, but not necessarily in synchronized competitions.
Many of the women also skate in singles events, which include the individual short and long programs, similar to the Olympics.
“Most of us have been skating forever,” Scopel said. “But maybe 10 girls have been skating synchro.”
Hickson, on the other hand, has been skating synchro since third grade but not on a team with such a good chance to win a major competition.
Part of this chance comes from the long hours the girls put in on and off the ice.
The team trains six hours on the ice and four hours off per week. Besides, it also has traveled every weekend since Christmas break for competitions.
“It’s hard trying to explain to teachers why I have to miss school for a competition like nationals,” Scopel said. “But this is what we have worked for.”
Ashley Bennett, 13, one of four junior skaters who performed before the MSU skaters’ performance last week, said she hopes to one day skate in college as well.
Bennett skates with the Lansing Skating Club.
“She has been skating for seven years and I can’t see her not skating in college,” said her mother, Karen Bennett. “She saw a skate show when she was 5 and has loved the sport ever since.”
Many members of the MSU team said they started with dreams similar to Bennett’s.
Aside from the opportunity to skate at synchronized nationals, the women have been invited to the Collegiate National Championship, which highlights the individual skating, for the first time. The event will be held in Ann Arbor on March 15 and 16.
