Skate Brandon members pursuing provincial titles

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This article was published 04/11/2011 (5267 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Skate Brandon competitors hope to return from Winnipeg this weekend carrying a couple of provincial medals with them.

Skate Brandon head coaches Tammy McKay and MaryAnn Penner took a contingent of 19 skaters to Winnipeg to compete in the provincial figure skating championships that begin today and wrap up Saturday. Four of those skaters earned medals last year and McKay is confident a few of her girls will make the medal podium again this year.

“I certainly hope so,” McKay said. “We’ve been working extremely hard. We’ve got a lot of skaters that have moved up in category, so they are skating at a higher level. But they’ve improved a whole lot since last year, … so I think we will have some medals.”

Leading the way will be Mercedes McLean, a 17-year-old from MacGregor who finished second in the novice girls division at provincials last year, while four other Skate Brandon members placed 1-2-3-4 in the pre-novice category last season. Portage product Madison McCallum, 14, who is currently living in Brandon, along with Morden’s Brooklyn Parker, 15, and Brandon’s Kirsten Gutenberg, 13, took three of the top four spots at provincials last year.

McLean will be joined in the novice category this year by McCallum, Parker, Brandon’s Ally Doherty, 16, and Hamiota’s Marian Juce, 17, while Gutenberg and fellow Brandonites Taylor McMurdo, 13, and Tori Thiessen, 11, lead 10 Skate Brandon members who will compete in the pre-novice division.

“Kirsten Gutenberg and Taylor McMurdo, they are certainly looking at a (medal) spot in pre-novice,” McKay said. “They are second-year pre-novice skaters, so they have a little bit of experience. And in the novice category, Mercedes McLean and Marian Juce, they are both skating in novice with experience from last year, so they should do well. Both Madison (McCallum) and Brooklyn (Parker) are stepping into the novice category after doing very well in pre-novice last year, and they are both skating very well as well. So it will be a really great competition.”

Also competing in the pre-novice division will be Brandon’s Samantha King, 14, and Darian Compton, 12, Elkhorn’s Hannah Martin, 12, Eddystone’s Caitlin Wilkinson, 14, Neepawa’s Amy Todoruk, 13, MacGregor’s Alexa Hulme, 15, and Hartney’s Casey Bertholet, 10.

“We have several skaters skating in the pre-novice event for the first time and that event actually has 27 skaters in it, so it’s a huge category,” McKay said. “So we’re certainly hoping that our new ones can crack the top half and if they go out and skate the way they are capable of, they could even be maybe in the top 10.”

Skate Brandon will also have four youngsters in the juvenile division in Brandon’s Courtney Morken, 11, Neepawa’s Zoie Forgue, 10, Morden’s Jordan Parker, 11, and nine-year-old Devon Borody of Portage.

The top four finishers in both the pre-novice and novice divisions advance to the Skate Canada Challenge in Regina, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, with the top competitors there advancing to the 2012 Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Moncton, N.B., from Jan. 16-22.

» jshewaga@brandonsun.com