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Show Load figwe skatow take- top honors- $t mtiomh By GARY R. BLODGETT DENVER Utah Figure Skating Club is off Oto a roaring start in 1988. Four club members all from Davis County competed in the 1988 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships in Denver, Colo., last week, and all four finished in the top seven of their divisions of competition. In fact, Kenna Bailey, of Centerville, captured cap-tured the national title with her partner, John Denton, 19, of California, in the Junior Pairs Division. Holly Cook, of Bountiful, finished sixth in the Senior Division the toughest division of competition while Clay Sniteman and his sister, Heather, finished fourth and seventh respectively in the Novice Division. Both are from Farmington. "It was a wonderful meet with a lot of excellent excel-lent competition," said Kenna, who is home in Bountiful relaxing and visiting all her high school friends. At age 17, Kenna skates to national title. "I won't return to the ice for serious training until early February, but I will limber up at the Bountiful Rink every few days until I return to California for serious training with my partner." Kenna scored first in the short program by a substantial margin, but not enough to win without with-out a very good showing in the long program. "It was still tough competition in the long program but we won that event, too, and the point spread was such that we captured the championship by a comfortable margin. The second and third-place teams were very close in overall scoring," she said. A 17-year-old daughter of Kaye and Stan Bailey of Centerville, Kenna has been teamed with John Denton as a dance pairs partner only since last April. During the last nine months " they have been tutored by John Nicks, who tutored among other skating greats Tiffany Chin, Tai and Randy, and Ken Shelley and JoJo Starbuck. Still a member of the Utah Figure Skating Club, Kenna was coached locally by Kris Sher-ard Sher-ard and her final year was tutored by Stewart Sturgeon. She is a senior at Viewmont High, but is attending Marymount Junior College south of Los Angeles. "My credits are being forwarded to Viewmont where I will graduate with my class this spring," she explained. Holly had set her goal as a seventh-place finisher in the U.S. National Championships. "The Senior Division is toughest of all," she explained before leaving for the meet in Denver. De-nver. ' 'The skaters are the best in the world and will be competing for a spot on the American team in the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Canada," Cana-da," she noted. Holly did reach her aspiration as a sixth-place sixth-place finisher, even after having a long wait to take the ice after her warmups for the final event. Now, Holly can set her goals for the 1992 Olympics right along side Kenna and her dance partner, John Denton. The brother-sister team of Clay and Heather Sniteman probably will advance to the Junior Division next year but in four years could very well be in contention for the U.S. Olympics. Olym-pics. Davis County residents will get a good look at the progress of these skaters when they compete com-pete in two years (January 1990) in the U.S. National Championships at the Bountiful Ice Rink and the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. sink imm: -: mmi mmumm, k John Denton and Kenna Bailey teamed up to win the Junior Pairs championships of the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships last week in Denver. Kenna is a senior at Viewmont High School. - ( |
