Battle Creek, Mich. – The Trine University figure skating team had a strong debut at their season opener, earning a program high score (258.5 points) and placing second out of 21 teams at Bronco Challenge Cup hosted by Western Michigan University.

On Saturday, The Thunder started out strong with Jessica Westphal earning bronze in Intermediate Short Program and Sophomore Celine Sanchez debuting a new Pre-Preliminary Freeskate that won gold with all first place ordinals. The team continued to rack up points with Kaitlin Gunter and Sadie Woodruff placing first and second in Silver Pattern Dance, Julianna Foy and Sadie Woodruff placing first and second in Juvenile Short Program, Haley Williams and Julianna Stanley placing first and second in Pre-Gold Pattern Dance and Lainie Kuckkahn placing first in International Pattern Dance. By mid-afternoon, the team had moved into 4^th place just 1.5 points behind The University of Michigan.

As day one continued on, The Thunder were determined to push towards the top of the podium. Sophomore Reilly Johnson debuted a solid Preliminary-Plus Freeskate earning first place and Arya Barnes-Kelley skated a beautiful Preliminary Freeskate placing 4^th and earning seven more points for Trine.

As the final events of the day approached, the Thunder was beginning to close the gap to first place and were only 16.5 points behind Adrian College. The Team rallied to put out strong individual elements during the notoriously tedious Team Maneuver event. First up was Low Team which suffered a couple of errors but managed to come back showcasing a flawless upright spin by Senior Kenzie Brouk and robust step sequence by Kaitlin Gunter to earn the team 5^th place out of 13 teams. Next, Intermediate team battled hard in a crowded flight of 9 schools. Freshman Brinna Russel executed an immaculate combination spin and Junior Elizabeth Carley easily won over the judges with an impressive twizzle series and step sequence. Overall, Intermediate Team earned a perfect score and won the event over Adrian College with all first place ordinals. Finally, High Team closed out the day by earning Trine's highest placement in the event in program history, placing third out of nine schools.

All of the hard work paid off as The Thunder left day one in first place with a score of 164.0.

"What a day!", exclaimed Head Coach Rachel Franchock, "We haven't competed in 18 months due to the pandemic so to simply be at an in-person competition again was very special to us, but then to have the phenomenal performances we had today on top of it was unmatched. We used last season to train and polish our events and it's clear our skaters' hard work is paying off."

Day two of the competition brought more success with Lainie Kuckkahn, Kaitlin Gunter and Claire Kearns all earning first in their free dance events. Freshman Kelsey DeLaney also made a strong debut earning second place in Novice Solo Free Dance and Julianna Foy, Jessica Westphal and Kenzie Brouk all earned podium finishes in their Freeskate events as well.

Overall, the Team ended their day just 11 points behind Adrian College and finished their first regular season conference competition in second place.

"We went into this competition with the goal of placing in the top four", explained Coach Franchock, "My skaters stayed focused and did their job this weekend and also had a ton of fun performing for a live audience and cheering on their teammates. I am very proud of them and know that this excellent first showing of the season puts us in a great spot to qualify for Nationals."

The Figure Skating team has two more competitions left to qualify for Nationals where the top four teams in the Midwest Conference will head to Adrian College to compete against the best 16 schools in the country. Their next event takes place at home as Trine University will host Thunder Country Classic on January 22-23^rd, 2022. This will be the first figure skating competition the school has hosted and plans to host about 20 colleges and universities.

Bronco Challenge Cup Results

1. Adrian College - 269.5
2. Trine University - 258.5
3. Western Michigan University - 198.0
4. University of Michigan - 194.5
5. Miami University - 191.0
6. Oakland University – 184.5
7. Michigan State University – 164.0
8. The Ohio State University – 143.5
9. University of Wisconsin Madison – 97.0
10. Washington University in St. Louis - 96.0
11. University of Notre Dame – 59.0
12. Northern Michigan University – 56.5
13. University of Minnesota Duluth – 49.0
14. University of Illinois – 43.5
15. Winona State University – 43.0
16. Kent State University – 38.0
17. Marquette University – 33.5
18. University of Central Oklahoma – 28.0
19. Texas A&M University – 27.0
20. Saint Mary's College – 21.0
21. Case Western Reserve University – 13.0