The Sun Valley Figure Skating Club sent a competition team of four skaters to the recent Northwest Pacific Regional Championships in Washington State. And one came home with a gold medal.
Skating in Pre-Juvenile, Nicole Pratt, 12, proudly joined an elite group of only five or six Sun Valley skaters to ever to capture first place at regionals.
It was quite an achievement for the Wood River Middle School seventh-grader, a competitive skater since preschool making her third trip to regionals.
Other locals at regionals were Ali Butler, Julianna Lamb and Alexandra Harten. Coach Darlin Baker accompanied Pratt and Harten. Butler and Lamb were accompanied by their coach, Holly Wheeler.
Butler, a Wood River High senior, represented the club at the highest qualifying level, Senior Ladies.
At this lofty level Ali competed against the best skaters in the six-state region including a skater already on the U.S. National team. Both a long and short program was required for a combined final score. Ali's sixth-place finish made her first alternate to compete at the 2008 Pacific Coast Sectional Championships in San Diego.
Lamb and Harten, both new to their levels and skating through injuries sustained the previous week, placed 13th and ninth, respectively.
Lamb, a Community School freshman, competed at the qualifying Novice level against a large group of skaters vying to qualify to compete at Sectionals. Harten, brand new to the regional competition this year, competed at the Preliminary level. Harten is a Community School fifth grader.
The Northwest Pacific Regional Championships drew top skaters from Alaska, Washington, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, and Idaho to Mountlake Terrace, Wash. last week to test their freestyle programs against the best figure skaters in the region.
Medalists at the Novice through Senior Ladies levels qualify for the Pacific Coast Sectional Championships. For skaters at the Non-Test through Pre-Juvenile level, it was a non-qualifying competition.
Sun Valley skaters at regionals, front row, from left, Ali Butler and Julianna Lamb and, back row, from left, Alexandra Harten and Nicole Pratt.
