Four members of the Kelowna Skating Club qualified to the prestigious Skate Canada Challenge, held at Calgary this past week.

Seventeen-year-old Calissa Adlem opened with an 8th place finish in the Junior Women short program segment and followed with a free program that included 4 high quality triple jumps.  Her total score of 140.66 points left her in 5th place overall in a field of Canada’s top 37 junior skaters.

Konstantina Lock opened with a 17th ranked short program and finished 18th overall with a total score of 117.58 points.

By way of their top 18 placements, both Adlem and Lock will advance to the Canadian National Championships to be held at Gatineau, QC in January.

Kelowna also had a pair of skaters compete at the Senior level, which included former World Bronze Medalist Gabrielle Daleman along with other top Canadian skaters.

Seventeen-year-old Gabrielle Jugnauth, competing in her first year at the top level, opened with a 25th ranked short program, but followed with a 16th place free program that included 5 landed triple jumps.  Her total score of 137.54 left her 20th overall, just over 3 points shy of the final qualifying spot.

Kelowna’s Emily Sales skated to 31st place after the short program and followed with the 27th best free program.  Her total score of 114.8 ranked her 29th overall.

Meanwhile, on the same weekend, a large team of local skaters had great success at the Okanagan Interclub competition held at Merritt, returning home with 27 medals in total.

A highlight included a podium sweep in the Pre-Novice Women’s short program.

Thirteen-year-old Bella Aucamp skated to gold with a personal best score of 28.51 points, followed by Sophie Clark and Sydney Price with the silver and bronze medals.

Clark followed up with a gold medal win in the free program, flanked by Price with the silver.

Olivia Waters struck gold twice, starting with the Juvenile Women’s division with a score of 28.27 points. Her second gold medal win occurred in group 1 of Star 7 Women, while Rebekah Vader won silver.

Kelowna skaters swept the podium again in the Star 9 Women’s short program.

Abbey McTavish led the trio with a score of 27.57, with Abegail Redekopp and Sarah Surminsky winning silver and bronze, respectively.

Surminsky added a gold medal to her collection with a personal best score of 38.07 points in Star 10 Women.

Redekopp added another silver medal in the Gold Women’s event, followed by McTavish in 3rd place.

Yet another sweep took place in the Pre-Juvenile Women’s category.

Avril Bowers scored 22.04 points to win, followed by Mia Leong and Kara Lu.

Kaelyn Gammie struck gold in the Star 6 Women’s division, while Irene Park did likewise at the Star 8 level.

Bridget Gayford had a personal best score of 19.92 to win Star 5 Girls under 13, while Madison Clark won bronze.

Niko Koskimaki and Rylee Krieg finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the under 10 division.

Kelowna skaters also hit the podium at the Star 4 level, where Claire Lin won gold in group 2 of over 13 girls, while Claire Katsabanis and Victoria Mosquera won silver and bronze medals in group 1. 

Nine-year-old Samantha Smith won bronze in the under 10 division to round out the medal wins.