The Dartmouth figure skating team continued dominating the Eastern Conference in its second meet of the season last weekend at the Delaware Gold Arena. Competition was fierce among Dartmouth, as the home team, University of Delaware, and 12 other teams competed for the three qualifying spots for Nationals coming up in April.
Sticking with the trend of past competitions the figure skaters danced, jumped and twirled their way to another impressive victory, winning the meet with a total of 121 points.
University of Delaware came in second with 90 points and Cornell snatching up third place with 28 points. This was the second meet of the year that the Big Green has won by more than 30 points.
Leading the way for the women were co-captain Ariel Stern-Markovitz '05 and sophomore Holly Ponichtera, who both provided strong point totals for the Big Green. Stern-Markovitz won two dance events and skated a flawless junior long program which included a solid double-axel to earn second place. She received third place in the junior short program, as well. Ponichtera also skated masterfully, winning both the intermediate and novice dance events, coming second in the junior short program, and taking third in the junior long.
Following her great performance Stern-Markovitz raved "We had an incredible weekend in Delaware and I'm thrilled to be finishing my Dartmouth athletic career with a fourth trip to Nationals."
Also contributing additional winning performances were graduate student Cynthia Chen and Hallie Damon '08, who each won both of their events in the short and long programs at the novice and intermediate levels. Freshman Nicole Newman skated a clean, solid program to take first place in the senior short program, marking her first collegiate win in this category.
With such strong front end scoring the skaters never looked back as co-captain Taylor Grant '06, Adrienne Lee '07 and Tegan Vey '07 capped off Dartmouth's dominance in the freestyle and dance competitions, showing their huge potential to really contribute at Nationals.
In the always exciting dance category, gold level ice dancers Katie Collins '06 and Dan Dittrick '08 executed the Viennese Waltz with impressive speed and extension. Collins received a silver medal for her efforts with Dittrick behind her in third place.
Dartmouth coach J.Michael McGean '49 summed up the weekend by saying, "It was a fine all-around performance by our team. Delaware was considerably stronger at this competition and rarely, if ever, loses at home but we had skaters successfully competing in up to five events and that takes plenty of stamina and talent."
The figure skating team hopes to continue its undefeated season at Nationals in April, which will be held at the University of Miami, Ohio. There they will defend last year's title. Until then, the team will take a bye for the third qualifying meet, focusing on their jumps, spins and exams.
