By Brandon Holveck
NEWARK — The bleachers in the Fred Rust Arena were mostly bare as the University of Delaware’s club figure skating team performed a dry run of its nationals lineup Thursday morning.
But it won’t be long until those same bleachers are packed by the dozen teams competing for the national title, and their supporters.
The University of Delaware hosts the 2019 U.S. Intercollegiate Figure Skating Championships April 12-14. Thursday’s practice, the last before the week-long spring break, served as an exhibition where almost every skater who will compete in April performed his or her routine to music.
The team is in search of its first national championship since 2016, which was the final year in a stretch of four straight national titles. Delaware placed second in each of the two years since.
“We want to go out as we came in,” senior and club president Samantha Puhl said.
Unlike in professional skating, at this level skaters aim to score points in individual events that contribute to a team ranking. The team with the highest score wins.
The team gets roughly 30 starts that are divided among 17 of Delaware’s nearly 60 skaters. Each start falls into a different level of difficulty, such as senior or intermediate. Those is the lower rungs have the opportunity to contribute just as many points to the team score as those at the top levels.
On paper, Delaware’s chances of reclaiming the national title look good, having won the east region at a competition at Penn State the first weekend in March. There Delaware defeated Boston University, the two-time defending national champions. This season Delaware is 2-1 against Boston.
Adrian College, the midwest regional champions, is also a threat. The school’s student body is less than many high schools at 1,650 students, yet Adrian is the only undefeated team in the country.
On the ice Thursday, the biggest challenge was performing so early. Warm-ups for the exhibition began at 6 a.m., with the first skaters performing at 6:45 a.m.
“I’m tired,” junior and vice president Hannah Gottfried said after her program. “It’s really early.”
Attending @UDFigureSkating practice a few times this month and next for a sports reporting class. Here's Julia Rowland finishing her program at this morning's exhibition. The team hosts nationals in a little over two weeks. pic.twitter.com/cygB7C7j7g
— Brandon Holveck (@holveck_brandon) March 28, 2019
The exhibition operated on a rigid schedule, much like the real competition two weeks from now, with only a short period of time for warm-ups between roughly every half dozen skaters. Throughout the weekend of the competition, skaters may have to perform late at night and return to perform early the next morning.
Given that, music ranging from Grace’s “You Don’t Own Me” to Lana Del Ray’s “Young and Beautiful” to a helping of Italian arias blasted through the hour-long exhibition.
“Making people run programs before 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., that’s like — if you can do it now, you can do it any time,” Puhl said.
Once students return from spring break, the team will have just one more practice but will be spending much of the week prepping the arena for the competition.
Here's a portion of Meghan Lapointe's program from this morning. @UDFigureSkating pic.twitter.com/LbtEF1ISvs
— Brandon Holveck (@holveck_brandon) March 28, 2019
“This year I think we’re in a good spot,” Puhl said. “The last two years were kind of rebuilding for us. We didn’t have as many skaters as we wanted in certain levels and this year we really have our foot in the door. I think we have just as much of a chance as pretty much anyone else.”
“We want it really bad,” sophomore Nicole Maguire added.