December Madness

Typically, December is a month filled with shopping, preparing for the holidays and hanging out with friends and family. Well, this month definitely was a busy one, but filled with so many exciting synchro events, that there was minimal time for shopping. Still, with all of these events came several reunions and countless hours spent with teammates.

The month started with a trip to Michigan for the Dr. Richard Porter Classic. The Skyliners junior team was excited because it was the first time we would get the chance to compete against the midwestern junior teams and a few teams from Canada. Before competing the short program, we headed to the rink to cheer on our intermediate team. As they took the ice, we (the novice team, too) cheered as loud as we could to support our fellow teammates. They wowed us once again with their fast and fun "Glee" themed program and won gold in their group.

Finally it was our turn to compete and we were so excited to show the crowd our energetic and bright program to “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” We skated well with just one small fall and were BEYOND ecstatic with our second place finish.

As we waited to perform our long program the next day, we spotted three former teammates, who now compete on two different collegiate teams, coming to cheer us on. We were very happy with the way we skated while still knowing there was room to improve. Hearing our score of 101, we were thrilled and could not believe that we had won the long program and came in second overall to one of the top Canadian teams, Gold Ice. We were extremely proud of our performance that weekend and had a wonderful experience at the Porter competition. Throughout the weekend, we were happy to reconnect with several friends we hadn’t seen in a while, as well as catch up and take a few quick pictures with our Dreammates.

The second weekend of December was upon us and we were off to Cape Cod for the second competition weekend in a row. We once again competed against the East Coast junior teams including the Lexettes, Team Image and the Synchroettes. We were really happy after competing the short program. The next day we had some time before we competed, where we were able to help the younger teams prepare for their competitions including sewing in the juvenile skaters hair pieces for their “Hairspray” program.

As the last division that night, we competed our “Phantom of the Opera” long program placing first. Cape Cod is always a fun competition that brings back so many memories of competing there year after year in the younger divisions.

Weekend number three put us into our favorite city, New York. That Friday, directly after school, we all raced to the train stations in our towns, just in time to board extremely crowded trains and meet each other at Grand Central Terminal. From there, we traveled together to the Chelsea Piers rink, home of the Skating Club of New York, for the annual "Holiday on the Hudson" skating show. We had a great time spending the night together as a team and performing under the spotlights in front of a crowd that doesn’t often get to see synchronized skating.

Finally, this last week of December has been spent busily preparing for the Junior World Team Selection Competition to be held next week in Fond du Lac, Wis. We have spent this week at the rink, once again, for our “Christmas Bootcamp,” as we like to call it. It has been hard, but a lot of fun and we have loved getting to spend so much time together. We are extremely excited to compete again next weekend and cannot wait reunite with friends from all over the country.

See you all at Fondy,

Ashley and Audrey