Canadian novice skaters win four medals at final event of 2018 North American Series

OTTAWA, ON: Skate Canada skaters earned three silver medals and one bronze medal at the 2018 Skate Ontario Summer Skate last weekend. The North American series events, which took place at the Scotiabank Pond arena in North York, Ont., saw 22 athletes from the USA and 25 athletes from Canada competing.

Mackenzie Ripley of St. Thomas, Ont., and Owen Brawley of Waterloo, Ont., followed up their gold medal at Skate Milwaukee with their second medal on the 2018 North American Series, a silver medal. The pair claimed second with a score of 106.91. They were edged out by Isabelle Goldstein and Keyton Bearinger of the USA, who scored 112.11. The 2018 Skate Milwaukee silver medallists, Jamie Fournier of Brossard, Que., and Gabriel Farand of Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Que., finished in fourth placed with a score of 93.86. Canadians Caidence Derenisky of Regina, Sask., and Raine Eberl of Moose Jaw, Sask., scored a total of 71.95 points to place sixth.

In ice dance, Canadian pre-novice silver medallists Sophia Kagolovskaya and Kieran MacDonald, both of Wellesley, Ont., took home the silver medal with a score of 94.46. The American team of Elizabeth Tkachenko and Alexei Kiliakov won the gold with 99.62 points. Cordelia Pride and Benjamin Lawless, also of the USA, won the bronze medal with a score of 85.55, beating out Canadians Jordyn Lewis of Komoka, Ont., and Noah McMillan of Ilderton, Ont., who finished in fourth place with 81.40 points. Canadian ice dancers Angela Ling of Waterloo, Ont., and Quinn Bisson of Warwick, Ont., finished less than two point back of Lewis and McMillan in fifth with 79.61 points. Alyssa Robinson of Ridgetown, Ont., and Josh Andari of Chatham, Ont., finished in seventh with 77.48 points, followed by Canadian pre-novice champions Sydney Embro of Waterloo, Ont., and Eric Millar of Kitchener, Ont., with 74.67.

Canada’s third silver medal of the event was won by Doriela Lugo-Mayrand of Rouyn-Noranda, Que. Lugo-Mayrand earned 125.88 points, behind the USA’s Kate Wang who took home the gold medal. Samantha Liker of the USA followed in third place with a final score of 115.53. The other five Canadian women followed consecutively from sixth to tenth place: Alyson Thibault of Ste-Marie Beauce, Que., in sixth with 104.86 points, Jaime Gabbard of Mississauga, Ont., in seventh with a score of 101.92, Maja Jacobsen of Waterdown, Ont., in eighth with 95.37, Kyrstin Lavelle of Toronto, Ont., in ninth with 89.36, and Hannah Gray of Thorndale, Ont., in tenth with 84.98 points.

In the men’s category of the North American Series, Canadian pre-novice champion, Matthew Newnham of St. Albert, Alta., won the bronze medal with 123.65 points. Two skaters from the USA placed ahead of him: Matthew Nielsen, who scored 137. 96 points and Eric Prober, who scored 123.65 points. Canadian pre-novice bronze medallist, Jake Ellis of Essex, Ont., finished in sixth place with 102.28, and Rio Morita of Thornhill, Ont., finished in eighth place with a total score of 99.78.

For full results, please click here. For more information on the event, please click here.

The event was the third and final stop in a series of three competitions on the 2018 North American Series. The novice-level series was developed by U.S. Figure Skating and Skate Canada’s Athlete Development and High-Performance Development Departments to provide international development competition opportunities for athletes that competed at the sectional or national level, to simulate an international competition, and compete against top athletes from both the U.S. and Canada.