The Central Alberta Lions speedskating club more than held their own against some of the top up and coming athletes in the province during the 2015 Alberta Open in Red Deer on the weekend.
With 25 local kids in the field of 85, Red Deer skaters found the podium six times in the six different divisions.
For a young developing group of skaters, it was a big showing for the club.
“We’ve got quite a young group of skaters, there’s lots and lots of potential,” said Lions club president Shawna Pearman.
Boys and girls were folded into the same divisions and races, with skaters divided by their personal bests in the different events.
Connor MacDougall led the way for the Lions with an overall third place finish in Division 2 while Mara Jenkins was third in Division 3, Erin Findlay was third in Division 5 and their was a Red Deer sweep of the podium in Division 6 with Charlotte Cutts first, Grace Webster second and Eoin Wolfe third.
The Lions also placed a number of other skaters in the top five, including Stefanie Spicer in fourth in the top division, Rachel O’Connel fourth in Division 4, Lukas Yzerman fourth and Ashley Marburg fifth in Division 5, and Teresa Cutts fourth and Vivienne Blignaut fifth in Division 6.
For three local skaters — Stefanie and Lauren Spicer, and Jenkins — the competition was a warm up for the Canadian Age Class Long Track Championships in Saskatoon this Saturday and Sunday. They qualified after an age class event in Calgary over the Jan. 16-17 weekend, as the club selected their top skaters.
“It’s not going there for performance to win a medal, your going there for the experience and to do the best that you can,” said Pearman. “It’s a stepping stone, and once you get to that you want to go to the next level.”
Stefanie Spicer, 15, has been competing in speedskating for eight years and this will be her second time at the championship and has also competed in the Alberta Games twice.
The Hunting Hills Grade 10 student is hoping to set new personal bests at the championship, but will be leaning on her past experiences.
“It’s a lot different than a normal, smaller competition,” she said, adding she will be skating in the 100-, 300-, 500- and a 3,000- metre race in Saskatoon. “It’s higher profile and there are higher stakes. It’s cool to be able to compete against a whole new group of people that are the best in the country.”
Heading into the weekend, the ice threatened to be a big story for all the wrong reasons, due to the unseasonable warmth of the prior two weeks. But, thanks to the dropping temperatures and city staff who prepared the ice, the effects of the weather were minimal.
“Our ice is fantastic right now,” said Pearman. “The last two weeks with all the warm weather we had to cancel skating because it was two soft. It was kind of touch and go even this week, it was soft, but they spent the whole week flooding it and maintaining it, so it’s really good ice.”
The changing conditions, however, will be a boost to the skaters heading to Saskatoon, as that track is also outdoors.
It’s a big advantage to be able to train on the outdoor ice and get used to it because it is definitely different with the hardness and it’s going to be more rough,” said Spicer.
The next meet for the Lions is Feb. 21-22 in Calgary.