INTERMEDIATE GOLD
Team Del Sol, 67.92
2013 U.S. SYNCHRONIZED SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS SILVER Fond du Lac Blades, 64.66
BRONZE Skyliners, 63.82
PEWTER Dazzlers, 62.15
Team del Sol gets back to basics with spy-themed program by RENEE FELTON Figure skating is impressive because, unlike
many sports and athletic endeavors, it combines skill and athleticism with grace and beauty. A program can simultaneously move to tears or impress with spins, footwork and jumps. But talk to any skater or coach, in any discipline, and you will hear that the basis of it all is technique. Without strong technique, athletes will only get so far.
T e coaching staff of Team del Sol, the 2013 U.S. intermediate champions, recognized that as they began the season. Coaches Karen Wiesmeier and Ashlyn Nadeau knew they needed to make some changes following a sixth-place showing at the 2012 U.S. Championships. “After last season, we realized we needed to pay attention to basic concepts and make sure everyone thoroughly understood what we were
Team del Sol
doing,” Wiesmeier said. “We were sticklers on getting things right and weren’t moving on until they were right as far as technically speaking goes. “We have two coaches so I took over the technical and the other coach took over the com- ponents. Together that was a good combination. I remember feeling not prepared last year at sec- tionals. We paid much more attention to detail this year.” T e attention to detail paid off as its spy-
themed program earned 67.92 points and re- ceived Level 3s on major elements including the intersection, wheel and circle. Fond du Lac Blades earned their second
consecutive U.S. silver medal with 64.66 points. While the fi nish was bittersweet, coach Jennifer McMahon noted her team’s successful season, earning medals at each of its events. She has an
added challenge of running one of the only syn- chronized skating programs in the area in which so many athletes have long commutes to the team’s home base in Fond du Lac, Wis. “We have kids who live 90 minutes north and 90 minutes south. When they are together, they work to clean up and do everything they need to,” she explained. “T e team already knows each other and they gel. T e girls who have the same home rinks will spend time working on dif- ferent sections of the program together so that there is something we know needs improvement they can work on their homework and we bring it back together.” T e skaters don’t mind the time in the car. “We carpool, we do homework on the way,” team member Lauren Ernst said. “We are used to it; the drive isn’t as long as it seems.” T e bronze medal went home with the
Skyliners. T eir Jackson 5 medley earned 63.82 points and the second-highest technical mark of event. “We have been working especially on our
technical score. We thought that could use the most work after our sectional,” Skyliners coach Natalie Martello said. “We hadn’t reached the 60s yet this year and we did today so we are very ex- cited.”
T e Dazzlers of the DuPage FSC made their
third trip to the U.S. Synchronized Champion- ships and hit their best fi nish to nab the pewter medal. In their last two appearances in 2008 and 2010, they fi nished 10th and eighth, respectively.
18 APRIL 2013
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
JAY ADEFF/U.S. FIGURE SKATING
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