April 22, 2015 at 1:08 p.m.
Northern Edge figure skaters shine at nationals
Northern Edge figure skaters shine at nationals
After an impressive win at the Wisconsin High School Class A Figure Skating Championship, the skaters were excited to show their stuff on a much larger stage.
As it turns out, that confidence was well-founded. Several skaters returned to the Northwoods with plenty of hardware to boast and team spokesman Dean Hoger said it was an impressive feat considering the incredible quality of the competition.
"We came home with six gold medals and six silver medals," he said. "Considering we were going up against western Pennsylvania, which has all the Pittsburgh area high schools, and all the Cleveland high school teams were there, it's impressive. Those are skating hotbeds and we did very well for a bunch of Northwoods girls."
Competition started Saturday and from the very beginning the Northern Edge showed the rest of the field it wasn't to be taken lightly.
"We were down in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio and there were teams from all over the Midwest there," he said. "Our girls skated wonderfully. On Saturday, we had the solo event competition, where each team competes in the traditional freestyle short program dances that people are used to seeing on television. It was kind of heartbreaking because we finished fourth, only two points out of being on the podium. That's hard."
Individually though, one Edge skater earned a huge win for the program.
"We are really proud of them," Hoger said. "The big one on the day was Grace (Hoger) winning the junior ladies free skate, which is the second highest level. Coming from northern Wisconsin, that's pretty impressive. We had some really excellent individual performances, which is what we wanted from the kids."
The next day, some of the more technical competitions began and, once again, the Edge impressed.
"On Sunday, we did the team maneuvers and the team of Grace (Hoger) and Lauryn Cook won first place in the jumps, which is absolutely amazing," Dean Hoger said. "There were so many incredible figure skaters there, and some of them were pretty shocked by how some of our girls could skate. To actually win an event like that was huge."
The duo of Grace Hoger and Cook weren't done there. They excelled in several categories, but one weak performance kept them from snatching overall honors in a tight field.
"They also placed fourth in spins, but their moves let them down and they finished eighth there," Dean Hoger said. "Overall, they finished fifth overall, which was heartbreaking because only one point separated each team in the standings, so they were realistically five points from first place. It was that tight. The girls skated fabulously though, and the fact that two girls from Rhinelander did that well is very impressive."
For Grace Hoger, it was a bittersweet finish. She said there's always a little second-guessing, but ultimately, she's happy with the result.
"It was a little frustrating because we were so close," she said. "You look back on it and you think about fixing that one thing that could have made a difference. I was all right with it overall though."
Although they didn't quite make the podium, Grace Hoger said the real thrill was being around the team and performing in a way that the Northwoods can be proud of.
"It was just fun to be able to represent Rhinelander," she said. "We got to see a lot of really good skaters. There was a ton of tough competition. It was fun watching our C team skate too because they rose to the occasion and skated really well."
In all, the Northern Edge returned home with six gold medals and six silver medals.
Hoger finished with a gold medal in junior ladies free skate, a gold medal in junior choreographed moves in the field, a silver medal in novice ladies short program and a silver medal in senior solo dance.
Cook earned a gold medal in juvenile dance and also earned a silver medal in novice choreographed moves in the field.
Cami Buchmann earned a gold medal in high beginner free skate and a silver medal in pre-preliminary choreographed moves in the field.
Carmen Incha earned a gold medal in junior solo dance and a silver in intermediate choreographed moves in the field.
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
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