This weekend, Dartmouth figure skaters soared past last season's national champion Cornell and the three time Eastern Conference Champion University of Delaware, to win this season's first regional qualifying meet at Princeton.
The team started off strong in the ice dance events on Friday evening. Former international ice dancer Katie Collins '06 led the Dartmouth team to four gold medals receiving all first-place ordinals in the senior ladies event. Teammates Holly Ponichtera '07 and co-captains Taylor Grant '06 and Ariel Stern-Markovitz '05 turned in the remaining three gold medals for Dartmouth. Katherine Kalaris '07 and Tegan Vay '07 also won points for Darmouth with third- and fourth-place finishes respectively.
Dartmouth kept-up Friday's momentum with strong freestyle performances on Saturday. Grant turned-in two more flawless performances to secure the most points of any skater in the meet. Stern-Markovitz and Ponichtera, followed suit as the second and third leading point scorers in the meet. Team newcomers kept Dartmouth in contention, with silver medals from Vay, Kirsten Murray '07, Adrienne Lee '07, graduate student Cynthia Chen and a hard-earned bronze from Severina Ostrovsky '07.
Coach J. Michael McGean '49 said "This was the most remarkable team effort and result of any Dartmouth figure skating team that I have coached." The team is thrilled with last weekend's win and hopes to qualify for its fifth consecutive national championship this season.
Paola Peacock-Villada '03 is the former co-captain of the Dartmouth Figure Skating Team
