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Show Quite a year Kenna grabbed a partner, and a national championship By GARY R. BLODGETT ' CENTERVILLE A year ago Kenna Bailey had not even been introduced to pair skating. Today, she's a national champion. Kenna, 17, daughter of Kaye and Stan Bailey, Centerville, teamed with John Denton of California, to capture the Junior Division of the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships held Jan. 4-9 in Denver, De-nver, Colo. "Everything has happened so fast that it's hard to believe it's true," said Kenna. "A year ago I was in regular figure skating competition com-petition as a member of the Utah Figure Skating Club." In March of last year Kenna was introduced to John, her partner. in the pair skating competition. Kenna Ken-na barely knew the technique of pair skating, but John was an experienced ex-perienced pair skater having twice competed in the U.S. Nationals in the Junior Division. Kenna and John met in Califor-nia, Califor-nia, but not just by chance. At the invitation of her world-renowned coach, John Nicks, Kenna and her mother went to southern California to meet two pair skaters who were being tutored by Mr. Nicks but who needed partners. "I skated with the other skater first but things didn't seem right," said Kenna. "But when I skated with John, things happened. Everything Ev-erything seemed so natural. Kenna was just finishing her junior year at Viewmont High and many changes would have to be made if Kenna and her parents were to accept the offer to match Kenna with John. They would need to train in southern California and Kenna still had another year of high school. VHS principal Nancy Fleming went to bat for Kenna and made it possible for her to earn high school grades while attending Marymount Junior College. "That's what I'm doing now," said Kenna, "and as of today I'm pretty pleased. I just received my report card for fall quarter and I was able to maintain a 3.85 grade-point grade-point average." Kenna said she and John began practicing in early June and things came together quite well until John injured himself a few weeks before the Nationals. "He suffered a one-half inch tear of a back muscle and the doctor ordered us off the ice until a week before the U.S. Nationals. We performed per-formed despite his injury and beat the team that had beaten us twice in qualification matches," she said with a smile. "We were out to get them because be-cause they beat us in both the regional re-gional and sectional qualifying meets. We added a little something to our long program, and it was enough to win by quite a wide margin." That "little something" that the couple added was a high-risk jump called the "Throw Triple Sal-chow." Sal-chow." Later, for next year's competition, com-petition, they plan to add a second high-risk routine called a "Throw Double Axle." "We've been skating for only about seven months but things just seem to click for us even the new, more difficult routines," said Kenna. "I have good feelings about ab-out us. He's a great competitor and an excellent skater." Kenna said their short-term goal is to steadily improve and to qualify qual-ify for the Senior Division pair skating by qualifying for the Gold Pair Test that would enable them to compete in the Senior Division next year. "Our long-term goals are to compete and place in the top seven of the Senior Division of next year's National Championships and to eventually qualify for and compete in the U.S. Winter Olympics," Olym-pics," said Kenna. She emphasized that pair skating is not usually a long-term career especially because it is so dangerous. danger-ous. "There are a lot of serious accidents in pair skating and the injuries can easily impair your skating ability." Kenna noted that she had been dropped only once since becoming a pair skater "and that was a bad fall that injured both of us. It happens hap-pens to most pair skaters one time or another. But he has saved me many times from serious falls." Was she excited about winning the national title? "You better believe it. It was a thrill of a lifetime, really exciting. It was a thrill just to perform in the Nationals, before the large crowds, and be invited to skate in a program called 'Exhibition of Champions' with some of the top skaters in the world." She said the program was televised tele-vised by NBC and will be aired this summer. Asked if she felt before the scores were posted that she might have won the title, Kenna smiled and replied: "Our coach leaned over and said he thought we had won it all. We were the last of 14 couples to perform per-form the final long program and as the scores were flashed to the public, pub-lic, there was no doubt that we had won the championship." She said their scores ranged from 5.0 to 5.4, which are very good for Junior Division competition. competi-tion. Kenna said training on and off the ice takes up most of her free time. She spends four hours a day Monday through Friday on the ice and two hours on Saturday. Off the ice, training consists of aerobics and weight lifting. "I have to watch what I eat because be-cause I must stay below 95 pounds," said the petite skater who said she stands 4-foot IVA inches in-ches and weighs between 92 and 94 pounds. She has long hair now and some of her Viking classmates didn't even recognize her. Kenna has been in figure skating competition for nine years, starting at age 8, most of that time as a member of the Utah Figure Skating Club. |