Nelson, Beekman excel in qualifying
The man outside Eagles Ice-A-Rena at dusk Thursday night was as enthusiastic as Dick Button.
“You missed the best step sequence I’ve ever seen from a novice,” he said to a friend who was returning to the Northwest Pacific U.S. Figure Skating Regional Championships. “It was as good as a senior skater’s.”
The man, one of many parent spectators from Alaska, was raving about Heidi Nelson, the 13-year-old who is one of two Spokane skaters who breezed through the ladies novice qualifying round.
Fellow Lilac City Figure Skating Club skater, 17-year-old Ashley Beekman, was decidedly the best among the 12 skaters in the morning group, outscoring second-place finisher Britt Olsen of Tri-Cities FSC, 58.89 points to 53.84. Nelson, one of 10 skaters in the evening group, outscored second-place finisher Kristen Hale, also of Tri-Cities, 58.46-47.75.
Michelle Peterschick of Rosalia finished eighth in the morning group, missing the cut into today’s championship-round short program by two spots. The top six finishers in both groups advanced into the main draw, which begins today at 10:20 a.m. Allie Millet, a Houston resident representing Spokane Figure Skating Club, Inc., finished fourth in the evening group and also qualified.
“The other competitions matter,” Nelson said after skating a clean program, “but this is something special. It can get you to sectionals.”
The top four finishers in novice, junior and senior divisions after Saturday’s free skates advance to the sectionals in Seattle, Nov. 14-18. The highest level is the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Jan. 21-28 in Spokane.
Beekman, a silver medalist in the novice at last year’s regionals, played it perfectly, spreading her six jumps (three combination double jumps) throughout the program. Under the new point system, skaters are awarded for landing jumps later in the program, which tests their stamina.
She fell on her second double-axel attempt about 2 1/2 minutes into the 3-minute program, after landing the difficult jump in a combination earlier in the program.
“I was a little excited about skating so well and I kinda let myself go,” said Beekman, who uses her willowy 5-foot-8 frame to her advantage.
Skating to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” Beekman began her program with a difficult spiral sequence. She followed with her double axel combination.
“For an initial round, it’s nerve-wracking because you are just trying to stay up off the ice,” said Berkley Villard, Beekman’s coach. “They put so much on themselves just so (they) can make it to the final round.”
Nelson, skating to “Kingdom of Heaven” and dressed in a less-conventional black pants outfit, played it safe in spots – opting for the single axel rather than a double. She landed her jumps nicely, but it was her spiral step sequence from one end of the rink to the other, and her charlotte spiral that got the spectators representing the region’s five states of Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska, asking, “Who’s that girl?”