In a history-making move, the Dartmouth figure skating team recently won its first U.S. national intercollegiate figure skating team championship.
Dartmouth scored 84 points at the event, held at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, dominating the nine U.S. collegiate qualifying teams. Top rival University of Delaware took second place with 65 points. Miami University and Boston University took third and fourth, and last year's championship team, Cornell, finished in fifth place.
Dartmouth's 19-point victory margin at Nationals is the culmination of the team's first undefeated season.
"We have a fine group of scholar-athletes here at Dartmouth who are winners both on and off the ice. Our first qualifying competition win at Princeton last fall was exciting, but to win nationals is the goal and dream of every team," said coach J. Michael McGean '49.
Co-captains Taylor Grant '06 and Ariel Stern-Markovitz '05 led the individual point-scoring for Dartmouth with 14 and 13 points respectively. Grant, with a solid double axel and innovative choreography, won the senior short program. Grant held the Dartmouth lead with a silver medal in senior long program and a gold medal in ice dance.
Stern-Markovitz continued her outstanding collegiate competitive career by skating two energetic programs, earning two silver medals and a gold in ice dance. Graduate student Cynthia Chen took first place in novice short and third in novice long. Rachel Bloch '07 rounded out the first place finishes with a win in the first group of pre-intermediate A dance.
Other notable performances include Celia Carmen '07, who opened Saturday's winning streak with a silver medal in intermediate freestyle. Adrienne Lee '07 and Severina Ostrovsky '07 took second and fourth respectively in novice short.
Holly Ponichtera '07 placed second in novice dance and third in junior long. Victoria Lee '05 and Kirsten Murray '07 finished third and fourth respectively in pre-intermediate C freestyle while Tegan Vay '07 placed third in pre-intermediate A freestyle.
Katherine Kalaris '07 and Rebecca Bruccoleri '05 both skated strong junior dances with Kalaris placing fourth. Lydia Gokey '06 earned fifth in senior dance and Jeanne Franzone '05 finished fifth in intermediate dance. Katie Collins '06 finished sixth in a strong group of gold-level dancers.
The team is coached by former Secretary of Dartmouth J. Michael McGean '49, who won the world ice dance championship in 1950 with his late wife, Lois McGean.
