Lincoln Center Skate Club’s Michaela Aker was a first-place finisher at last year’s Indiana State Figure Skating Championships in Fort Wayne. LCSC will host the Columbus Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.
Submitted photo
The past several years, Lincoln Center Skate Club has hosted a basic skills competition for lower-level figure skaters.
But when the state figure skating clubs got together in November and decided to launch the Indiana Figure Skating Championship Series, LCSC jumped at the chance to host the first of the four events.
“We’re really excited to have the opportunity to host a larger-scale event,” LCSC president Kevin Aker said. “We increased the size of our event this year to align with this new Indiana Figure Skating Championship series. It the past, it’s been a Compete USA event. It’s beginner levels, and it’s a simplified judging system.”
This weekend, LCSC will host the Columbus Invitational at Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena. Practice will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, with competition starting at 10 a.m.. Sunday’s action will begin at 9 a.m.
Admission is free and open to the public.
“Our event this weekend actually brings in a panel of 16 officials from a five- or six-state region, and some of the events will be scored just like you see on television,” Aker said. “We’re going to be able to showcase our facility to a level of judging that we have not seen in years.”
Lincoln Center Skate Club’s Emily Martin performs during the Kathy Slack Troy Summer Competition in 2019 in Troy, Ohio.
Submitted photo
Aker, who is vice president of Indiana Figure Skating Council, said the organization met in November and crafted the idea of rather than having a single championship event, it would have four host sites, and award points from each to determine a champion. The other events will be in June in Carmel, August in Fort Wayne and September in Evansville.
“The intent in this is to drive participation in each of the clubs around the state,” Aker said. “The main thing this year is to put on a good show. The clubs will collaborate, and we’ll figure out how to make this better going forward.”
This weekend’s event will feature 99 participants, 55 of which are from the Columbus area. LCSC has 41 skaters competing, with the rest of the locals coming from the Learn To Skate program through Parks and Recreation.
Divisions will include senior level and masters (adults), down to toddlers and tiny tots levels.
Skaters can practice from 8 to 9:40 a.m. Saturday, and competition starts at 10 a.m. The younger divisions will compete from 12 to 12:30 p.m., followed by the senior ladies division and novice ladies excel division at 1:25 p.m. There will be showcases from 2 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 5:30 p.m., with adults inbetween them from 3:30 to 5 p.m.
Sunday’s competition will feature the more beginner levels.
“It’s exciting,” said Taylor Burdekin, one of the LCSC coaches. “In years past, we’ve hosted a lower-level event, so to be able to host some higher-level skaters here, it will be nice to promote some higher-level skating throughout Indiana, which is hopefully what this series will accomplish. And it’s a chance for our skaters to show off their hard work to friends and family.”
Burdekin is joined on the LCSC coaching staff by Katie Baxter, Emma Baxter-Valbuena, Liz Fernandes and Heather Lehnert. Burdekin and Lehnert are co-chairs for this weekend’s competition.
“It was something that we definitely wanted to be a part of,” Burdekin said. “We’re really excited that we were able to get it started in time and be the first to kick off the new series.”
