Les Suprêmes won the national title in the Novice division. /Credits : Sean McKinnon

This past weekend welcomed over 40 of Canada’s top synchronized skating teams to Calgary, Alberta for the 2017 Skate Canada Synchronized Skating championships. The competition was full of western pride as teams wore their cowboy hats and danced to country music with pride.

The first champions crowned came from the Intermediate division. Nexxice from Western Ontario took top spot, shattering the Canadian record earning 81.70 points in the second skate to total 120.53 overall. The Ilderton Silver Jets also from Western Ontario took the silver, coming just over 3 points behind Nexxice. The bronze medal was captured by Nova from Quebec, who struggled this season but fought back at this Canadians to earn a season’s best score of 105.78 overall. On both days of competition, fans waved green tissue paper in the stands to honour the Riverview Royalty team, skating in honour of a teammate who passed away- Elizabeth Landers. The team placed 13th in the competition, but the feeling that they left on the ice was unprecedented.

Nexxice claimed its second gold medal of the event in the Open category. Nexxice Open also shattered the Canadian record to earn 106.84 in their second skate, and 157.69 total. Les Supremes claimed silver with 132.61 points and Les Pirouettes narrowly missed the silver but won bronze with 132.00 points total. Gold Ice, Evolution, Black Gold, Edmonton Edge, Ice X- Calibur and the University of Manitoba Ice Intrepid also competed in the open event.

It was a Quebec sweep in the Novice division, with Les Supremes claiming their 4th consecutive Canadian title, earning 109.41. Les Pirouettes took silver (108.72) and Nova captured their second bronze medal of the event with 106.55. The novice category was undoubtedly competitive, as Nexxice placed a heartbreaking 4th after being consistently on the National podium since 2014. It was a close race, 5th place (Gold Ice) and 6th place (Oakville Edge) were only separated by 0.79 while 7th place (Synchronicity) and 8th place (Ilderton Precisionnaires) were only separated by 0.20 points in the final.

In a small yet mighty Junior competition, Les Supremes scored 65.82 in the short program which gave them a good cushion over Nexxice, who scored 62.32. Les Pirouettes trailed behind with 58.14. The free program unfortunately saw some costly mistakes from all teams, with Nexxice winning the free program (106.26) but claiming the silver medal overall (168.58). Les Supremes won their Canadian title back with a total score of 170.60, and Les Pirouettes finished 3rd with 146.38.

Next year, Canada hopes to add two new junior teams to the competition- Nova and Gold Ice will hold tryouts for junior teams. In just two weeks time, Nexxice (Canada 1) and Les Supremes (Canada 2) will take the ice at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ontario for the 2017 ISU World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships, being held March 10th-11th.

In the Senior competition, Nexxice took their third gold medal of the event, and their 10th Canadian title, winning both the short and free program, earning 205.60 over reigning Canadian Champions, Les Supremes, who had some unfortunate mistakes. Les Supremes earned 190.64 overall. Canada’s newest senior team- Nova took their third bronze of the event with 168.88 overall. Meraki placed 4th with 136.48 overall.

Nexxice (Canada 1) and Les Supremes (Canada 2) will represent Canada at the 2017 ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado April 7th-8th.

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