Top Skates and Podium Finishes for Cochrane Figure Skaters

It was a very successful weekend (January 11-13) for figure skaters from the Cochrane Skating Club. 

The skaters took to the highway and travelled to Invermere, British Columbia to compete for the first time as a club at the East Kootenay Invitational.

Competing against roughly 300 other skaters, Coach Karen Allison shares the girls did extremely well. "We had a good weekend overall, and we had quite a few skaters attending all the way from Level STAR 1 all the way up to Level STAR 6. It was a different event for us as it was in the BC section and so they had some events that we normally don't see anymore here in Alberta like Elements and Solo Dance events. In the end, we had lots of podium finishes, some gold ribbons for the younger levels, and some personal best scores, so overall a really great weekend."

Back at the start of the season, when Allison and team were planning out which competitions the club would partake in, she thought it was a rational request to bring forth to the skaters and their families for feedback. "At the beginning of the season I saw the event on the schedule under the BC section, and because it was Invermere and only being a three-hour drive, I thought it was a reasonable location. I knew their events would be a little bit different than what we see at our competitions here in Alberta and they are actually less expensive, so I thought there were a few reasons to give a BC competition a try and I think we will look at it again next year."

The skaters certainly don't have a lot of downtime in between competitions as their season now picks up momentum. "Our next event is Rocky Mountain House, and that is February 8,9, and 10^th, and we have a smaller group attending that one. Then we have the Lethbridge competition first weekend in March, and then at the end of March, is the STARSkate championships which are provincials for STAR skaters. So a couple more competitions and then the big one where everyone wants to have their best skating at."

For coaches, seeing how hard the skaters work on the ice is always impressive even if they never achieve a 'top spot'. Learning to give it their best effort is a message they consistently drive home to the figure skaters. "As individual athletes competing in such a difficult sport and judged sport it is super important to set realistic goals for your self and also do the mental training that is involved because you can only control what you can control. You have to let go of the other things, the environment, the ice, what the judge's opinion is, and you have to let that go. You have to stay focused on your skating and doing what you're able to do because at the end of the day you just want to feel really good about what you did and if you don't skate the way you want you will use that as motivation at your next event."

Results from the East Kootenay Invitational are as follows:

STAR 1

• Katelynn Kurkowsky-bronze 
• Laurel Bieber-?  
• Paige Shiner-merit 

STAR 2 

• Feiyah McLean-bronze
• Piper Halliday-bronze 
• Jocelyn Peters-gold

ELEMENTS STAR 2 

• Bentley Halliday-Bronze
• Feiyah McLean-bronze
• Piper Halliday-bronze

STAR 3

• Clair Moore-Bronze 
• Ellie Allison-silver 
• Mackenzie Cann-Gold

ELEMENTS STAR 3

• Ellie Allison-gold 

SOLO DANCE STAR 2/3 

• Piper Halliday-silver 
• Bentley Halliday-bronze
• Feiyah McLean-bronze 

U 13 STAR 4 

• Alexis Brassington-bronze
• Kaitlyn Eiserman-Gold  
• Lauren Roswell-6th

ELEMENTS STAR 4 

• Alexis Brassington- bronze 
• Kaitlyn Eiserman-bronze 

SOLO DANCE STAR 4/5

• Kaitlyn Eiserman-gold
• Lauren Roswell-4th 

STAR 6 

• Abigail Cabot-10th 
• Evelyn Archibald- 4th 
• Taylor Kaarto-9th 

ELEMENTS STAR 6 

• Evelyn Archibald-11th
• Taylor Kaarto-12th

SOLO DANCE STAR 6/7 

• Alexis Brassington-4th
• Taylor Kaarto-5th

INTRODUCTORY INTERPRETIVE

• Kaitlyn Eiserman-Gold 

BRONZE INTERPRETIVE

• Alexis Brassington-8th
• Evelyn Archibald-7th 

SILVER INTERPRETIVE 

• Abigail Cabot-4th
• Taylor Kaarto-10th