Skylands Skating Academy 2018-19 figure skating season has recorded its best ever results
Skylands Ice World, in Stockholm, NJ, is home to the Skylands Skating Academy where the 2018-19 figure skating season has recorded its best ever results, with largest number of competitive skaters, coming from the Sussex County area.
Skaters that begin in Skylands Ice World’s Learn to Skate Program, governed by the United States Figure Skating Association, come in as beginners, often at the Basic 1 level, or Snowplow Sam, and continue on through the various levels to achieve their goals. Skaters can begin to compete in the very basic levels, and continue through to nationals, as well as, what we all watch on TV, the Olympics.
Skylands Skating Academy has seen, this season, major break throughs on the competitive scene, in both synchronized skating, as well as singles skating. All of the skaters that have represented Skylands Skating Academy this season have started in the Learn to Skate Program right here at home. The Skylands Skating Academy currently has 30 singles competitive skaters that hit the circuit annually.
The 2018-19 Skating Season marked the largest group of competitive skaters from the Skylands Skating Academy qualifying for the 2019 North Atlantic Regional Championships in Lake Placid. All of these skaters are home grown, right here at Skylands Ice World.
Skylands Skating Academy’s Intermediate Skater, Maliah Utley, of Hewitt, NJ, placed 3rd, (out of 60), at regionals, earning her a spot at the 2019 Eastern Sectionals in North Carolina. Malia placed 5th at Sectionals, making the first alternate for 2019 National Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, MI, which feeds the United States Olympic Team.
In addition to competing individually, Skylands Skating Academy also offers pairs skating, Theatre on Ice, and Synchronized Skating. The Synchronized Skating Teams, of which there are three, are called the NJ Black Diamonds. The NJ Black Diamonds began in 2011, with one team of eight skaters. In the 2018-19 Skating Season, the NJ Black Diamonds have three teams of skaters, ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old, beginners to advanced, for a total of 41 skaters!
Every year the NJ Black Diamonds, as well as the Single Competitive Skaters have finished higher and higher in the standings. In the 2018-19 Season, all around, the Skylands Skating Academy has seen the best results yet! The NJ Black Diamonds’ highest skilled team has placed 3rd out of 32 teams in the entire east coast at the 2019 Eastern Sectional Synchronized Skating Championships. This Pre-Juvenile team is coached by Brielle Freda and Tori Mueller, who are both former Synchro World Junior Team USA Members. The NJ Black Diamonds, Learn to Skate, Pairs and Singles Skating are overseen by Skylands Ice World’s Skating Director, Kim Sutton.