Four figure skaters from the Cochrane Skating Club will be competing this weekend in the StarSkate Provincial Championship in Edmonton.

Evalea Foley, Piper Halliday, Atera Kirkpatrick and Sherry Xu have advanced from Star Series #4 Chinook Competition in Lethbridge, Mar. 1- 2.

"This is really incredible," says Karen Ellison, Cochrane director of StarSkate. "This year in unique because this is the first time since I've been coaching that they've had skaters have to qualify."

"They all did really well and had a good time and supported Cochrane," says coach Lynanne Bjerke. "We're so proud."

The skaters typically train up to five days a week, some even more often, and competitions like this give them the opportunity to show how they have developed their skills.

Evalea Foley tried several different sports before falling in love with skating. She's since been training up to seven days a week for the last two years to advance her skills and will be competing in the 5 Star Freeskate.

"I'm very thrilled," she says. "Two years of skating and it's pretty fun to be able to go and experience it."

Piper Halliday has been skating for 10 years and won two golds and a silver in the Lethbridge qualifier.

She's looking forward to skating in her first provincials in Star 5 Women's Artistic.

"There's been some girls I've been in flights with before, but I don't really know what I'm walking into, and I'm so excited to see."

Like Evalea, she had tried other activities before discovering skating.

Sherry Xu followed her coach Lynanne Bjerke to Cochrane from the Crowchild club about three years ago. She competed at provincials two years ago, and this weekend she'll be competing in Star 7.

"It's pretty exciting, because we've worked so hard all season for this, so it feels nice to get that opportunity to show off all our hard work."

Like Sherry, Atera Kirkpatrick followed her coach to Cochrane three years ago. She is competing in Star 6 Free Skate and Star 7 Women's Artistic. This is her third appearance at provincials, and she's been skating for seven years.

"When I was little, I really liked the dresses. I thought the dresses were really pretty and I thought it was fantastic to watch everybody and I wanted to try it."

She believes one of the most difficult skills to master is the spins.

"Everything has to work together perfectly, and it's hard to get everything to work."

figure skaters

Eleven skaters had incredible success at the Lethbridge competition, returning with seven gold, five silver medal and several other high placings.

Bentley Halliday, gold, Star 4 U13 Free Skate Flight G

June Gartner, gold, Star 4 U13 Free Skate Flight H

Megan Lewis Moore, silver, Star 4 U13 Free Skate Flight A

Quinnley Bruce, silver, Star 4 U13 Free Skate Flight C

Saveah Cholach, 5th, Star 4 U13 Free Skate Flight B

Claire Moore, gold, Star 4 13 & over Free Skate Flight D

Piper Halliday, silver, Star 4 13 & over, Free Skate Flight C

Alyssa Bjornson, 5th, Star 4 13 & Over Free Skate Flight D

Evalea Foley, gold, Star 5 U13 Free Skate Flight B

Piper Halliday, gold, Star 5 Artistic Flight H

Claire Moore, 6th, Star 5 Artistic Flight H

Evalea Foley, 6th, Star 5 Artistic Flight C

Atera Kirkpatrick, gold, Star 6 Free Skate Flight B

Sherry Xu, gold, Star 7 Free Skate Flight B

Atera Kirkpatrick, silver, Star 7 Artistic Flight A

Shery Xu, silver, Star 7 Artistic Flight B

The club is currently prepared to dazzle the community with their skating carnival on Mar. 23. Held every two years, this year's theme is ‘A Fictional Fantasy on Ice.’

The Cochrane Skating Club offers Skate Canada certified programs for Pre-CanSkate (learn to skate ages 3+), CanSkate (skating foundations for hockey, ringette, figure skating and recreation), and StarSkate (figure skating).