#easterns2014

Whew! What a weekend! Our figure skating club hosted the 2014 Eastern Sectional Synchronized Skating Championships in Hershey, PA last Wednesday to Saturday where over 156 teams (2,500+ skaters) from the eastern seaboard competed. From practicing, volunteering, to competing and driving from rink to rink and home and back - it's been quite an adventure.



My volunteer shift started at 3:30pm at the Giant Center on Thursday. My job was to monitor the ice (aka open/close the rink door). I got to see the intermediate and masters teams' official practice which was pretty cool.

My job also included arranging the skaters' hard guards. It's amazing how many don't match up!

On Friday morning, our Team Reflections Open Juvenile team skated in the qualifying round at the Hersheypark Arena. They placed third and moved onto the Championship Round which would be held the following day at the Giant Center.

Our Team Reflections Open Adult Team (I'm the fourth person from the right) skated on Friday evening. We placed second in our qualifying round and also moved onto the Championship Round! This photo is from our dress rehearsal at our home rink the weekend before.



Our qualifying results.

 

The final round was a nail biter but we ended up as the Open Adult Bronze Medalists!

Got to watch Novice teams compete at the Giant Center after all our competing events and volunteering shifts were over. They are so good. Wish we could have stayed for the Junior and Senior free skates but we were beat and we left before it began.

I have videos of the routines but I will post them once the season is over. The Open Juv team placed sixth out of 28 total teams (12 competed in the championship round). I really thought they would place in the top 4 but it was such a competitive group that it could have gone any which way. One judge did place Team Reflections first in her rankings (the same one that put our adult team last) so I guess that's one consolation. To compare how far we've come, the Adult team placed 7th last year at Easterns in the qualifying round and OJ placed 5th in theirs and just missed making the final round. So getting to the final round for both our teams was quite an accomplishment.

Overall the event was a huge success and I am so proud to have been a part of it! The weather was great also, thank goodness. Now the snow and ice has infiltrated the region and it's preventing me from getting to the rink! Not cool. I've only skated five total minutes in the last week so I've been anxious to get back to it.

There's more practicing yet because the Reflections Synchro Invitational is coming up in a couple weeks. Time to turn bronze into GOLD!