The Miami University Synchronized Skating teams performed well in several events during winter break.
"All three teams have grown tremendously since the beginning of the season," assistant coach Lee Ann Shoker said.
In their first competition at the Dr. Richard Porter Classic, the senior team placed first with a 173. 96 combined score, while the collegiate team placed second and the junior team finished in sixth place.
Senior collegiate team skater Katherine Rice feels that second place was a good starting point for the season.
"It really lit the fire for us so we could gear up and work even harder as the season progressed," Rice said.
The Foot of the Lake Classic was held in early January for the junior and senior teams and was also the World Qualifier for the junior team.
With a 169.08 combined score from its short and long programs, the senior team finished second out of four teams and the junior team earned a 105.09 combined score to finish ninth out of 12.
Miami's collegiate team won The Mid-America Championships in the middle of Jan and outscored their competitors by more nearly 14 points.
"The collegiate team has really come together on expression and feeling the music while performing," sophomore Sennett Cooke (LINK 3) said.
The senior team skated to a second place finish.
The junior team travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden to compete in the Leon Lurje Trophy competition. The RedHawks placed fifth for both their programs in a field of 11 teams. Cooke said she feels the team has gained a lot of confidence in their programs, which has been exhibited in their improvements with each performance.
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"This was a highlight to their season so far and they put out their best skate," Shoker said.
At the end of Jan., the collegiate and senior teams had a strong weekend competing at the Midwestern Championships and Mozart Cup, which is hosted in Salzburg, Austria. The collegiate team won the Midwestern Championships and the senior team placed fourth at the Mozart Cup.
"The win for the collegiate level was really fantastic because we skated cleanly and we were very pleased with our performances," Rice said.
The collegiate team defeated its nearest competitor by more than 20 points in the Midwestern Championships.
"The collegiate team has really amped up their skating since the beginning of the season, and skated flawlessly at the Midwestern Championship," Shoker said.
The three synchronized skating teams will perform at the intermissions of select hockey games as they continue to prepare over the next month of the U.S. National Championships.
"I am looking forward to the senior teams long program themed "Cards," to be debuted at the hockey exhibitions," Shoker said. "I feel the crowd will really enjoy it."
Practices will focus on adding an additional layer of choreography and continuing to perfect the routine the teams already have.
"We're excited that we still have farther to go, and we know that our practices have been even better than our competitions so that means we can keep pushing ourselves," Cooke said. "We have come so far both on and off the ice, as a team we have gotten very close and it's very exciting how much we have improved from the beginning of this year."
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