Recap

The season opened in Ontario with Bill Phillips Memorial


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Oakville Edge Intermediate at Bill Philips this weekend. (Credits: Oakville Synchronized Skating Edge - 2019)

This past weekend 100 teams from all across Ontario and Quebec took the ice in Dorchester, Ontario. (CAN), for the first competition of the competitive synchro season in Ontario. The kickoff of the season for many teams, teams from Juvenile to Adult competed for titles over a two day period.

A program skated twice
The competition kicked off Friday afternoon with the Intermediate and Novice first skates.

In Canada, categories that will compete at the Skate Canada Synchronized Skating Championships skate their program twice at competition. The score from the first skate is halved and combined with the score from the second skate to determine overall placement. New this year in Ontario, non-qualifying teams skate once with the goal of optimizing competition hours and allowing more teams to compete in un-capped categories.

Ice Lightening of the Port Carling Figure Skating Club took gold in the Pre-Novice event (30.88), Alvinston Ice Angels took silver (28.66) and Sparkling Ice, bronze (27.30). Pre Novice skaters are aged 13-18 and do not compete at the Nationals.

The Adult 3 event concluded the night on Friday, however a revision was made to the result when it was discovered some scores were inputted incorrectly. Mississauga Ice Precise rose from silver to gold (20.64) and Tavistock’s Team Unity fell to silver after the error was discovered (20.46). The bronze medal went to Ice Fyre from Whitby (18.52).



"Full crowd" on the second day
On the second day of competition, the energy was high in the building as more teams arrived ready to showcase their programs to the full crowd. The first event of the day was the Elementary category. Elementary teams are an introduction to synchronized skating, and are therefore judged as Assess to Standard (ATS) as opposed to the International Judging System (IJS).

The Novice teams took their ice for their second skate and showcased strong skating skills, fun programs and innovative elements. Sparkling Ice claimed their third medal of the weekend, a gold (85.77), followed by Gold Ice (80.61) and Nexxice in the bronze medal position (79.57).



Both Nexxice Open and Nexxice Senior skated exhibitions, wowing the audience with their energetic programs. Nexxice Open skated to a mashup of alternative artist Billie Elish, while Nexxice Senior skated to O Fortuna from Carmina Burana- a take off of their iconic free program from the 2009 season.


The Intermediate event (skaters aged 13-19) has continued to show tremendous growth, as teams are closing the gaps in points and improving their skating skills. Reigning Canadian champions, Nexxice took gold skating to Dear Evan Hanson (89.44). Oakville Edge took silver (87.06) and the reigning Canadian bronze medalists, Meraki, took bronze (75.72).


An event that drew in a full crowd was the Junior event at Bill Phillips. With teams vying for world team placements in less than 30 days, stakes were high to earn a podium finish at this event. Although Nexxice won the short program, they were unable to catch Nova in the free. Nova won the event with a healthy 3.40 point margin (157.03) and Nexxice took silver (153.63). Bronze was claimed by Gold Ice (136.38) who achieved a new personal best in the short program. Ilderton’s Ice Ignite trailed behind with 111.92 points to finish fourth.


The Adult 2 and 1 skaters closed out the event. The Tavistock Skating Club claimed gold and silver in Adult 2 (Team Unity Image 39.97 and Team Unity 39.24) and bronze went to Ilderton Ice Ignite (35.13).

Team Unity also won gold in the Adult 1 category (58.01), Mississauga Ice Precise in second (50.65) and Team Trinity took the bronze (48.80).

The success of this event would not have been possible without the tireless work of host club- Tavistock Team Unity, along with technical representative Shellee Niznik and Skate Ontario event coordinator Lauren Zbucki.

Results - TOP 3

Bill Phillips Memorial 2019
(CAN)
DEC 13, 2019 - DEC 15, 2019

Junior
TEAM Score
1Nova (CAN)157.03
2Nexxice (CAN)153.63
3Gold Ice (CAN)136.38

Novice A
TEAM Score
1Sparkling Ice (CAN)85.77
2Gold Ice (CAN)80.61
3Nexxice (CAN)79.57

Intermediate
TEAM Score
1Nexxice (CAN)89.44
2Oakville Edge (CAN)87.06
3Meraki (CAN)75.72