Sports

MIT Figure Skating Club wins five medals at home rink

MIT finished 11th at the Northeast Intercollegiate Figure Skating Team Competition

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In the Senior Ladies' Short Program, Diane Zhou G (left) placed second and Erina Yamaguchi '23 (right) placed first.
Flora Su

The MIT Figure Skating Club hosted the third and final Northeast Intercollegiate Figure Skating Team Competition of this season Feb. 1–2, 2020. Skaters representing 21 different colleges from across the northeast region came to the Johnson Athletics Center to compete. Boston University won the competition with 170.5 points, followed by Dartmouth College with 149 points. New York University came in 3rd with 127 points, while MIT earned 32.5 points to place 11th overall.

Team Co-captain Diane Zhou G and Erina Yamaguchi ’23 contributed 13 points by taking the top two spots in the Senior Ladies Short Program Group C event. Erina’s skate to “Impossible Opening” from the musical Finding Neverland earned a gold medal (7 points), while Diane's performance to "A Palm of a Tiny Hand" from the anime Clannad won a silver medal (6 points).

Zhou won another medal earning 5 points with a 3rd place finish in the Excel Senior Ladies Free Skate event. Flowing through her routine to the Mandarin Chinese version of “Yellow” from the film Crazy Rich Asians, Diane completed 6 double jumps, including a double flip-double toe loop combination and a double lutz-double toe loop combination.

Yamaguchi landed two double axels and made an impressive triple salchow attempt in her touching performance to “Leningrad” by William Joseph. Her 6th place finish in the Senior Championship Ladies Free Skate event earned MIT another 4 points.

Nidhi Juthani G earned 3 points for MIT. Her entertaining program to “Liquid Dance” from the film Slumdog Millionaire wowed the crowd in the Intermediate Ladies Short Program event and garnered 1 point. A bronze medal in the Silver Pattern Dance event contributed another 2 points for MIT.

Team Co-captain Andrea Lin ’22 contributed 3 points with a 3rd place finish in the Juvenile Ladies Short Program event. Her smooth skate to “Entering Twin Falls” by Nicholas Gunn featured a beautiful combination spin and a solid single axel.

Olivia Yao ’20 competed in two dance events, Bronze Pattern Dance and Pre-Silver Pattern Dance, to earn MIT 2.5 more points.

MIT also participated in the High Team Maneuvers event. Juthani executed a flawless single axel from a spread-eagle entry. Shannen Wu ’21 followed with a fast flying camel spin with two elegant variations. Yao showcased a stunning sequence of edges including a change of edge arabesque spiral and a fan spiral. Zhou contributed a clean double lutz jump with a difficult ’Tano arm variation. Club President Juliana Drozd ’22 wrapped up with a spectacular step sequence. The team placed 6th out of 11 to earn 2 points for MIT.

The MIT Figure Skating Club’s next event will be their annual Spring Exhibition on Saturday, March 14, 2020 at 6 p.m.