KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Both Collegiate and Open-Collegiate synchro teams headed north to Kalamazoo Michigan this past weekend to continue their season at the 20^th annual Kick-Off Classic.

Collegiate kicked Saturday morning off with a critique and after performing a program and several sections, they circled up to learn what the judges thought of their program.

"The feedback we received was very encouraging and positive," said Coach Rachel Franchock, "It's early in the season so we obviously have quite a bit of tidying up to do in our program but the judges liked our elements and choreography. We have a few tweaks we'll make based on their feedback and plan to implement that for our next competition coming up in December."

With Collegiate' s critique complete, the focus turned to getting Open-Collegiate ready for their first competition of the season. The team was excited to debut their Top Gun themed program, in front of a large contingent of family members, friends and fans who made the trip to show their support.

Skating first in a flight of eight teams, the Thunder had their work cut out of them and would need to debut a near-flawless program in order to be in podium territory. And while the team executed a solid program with no major errors, a few bobbles and timing fumbles earned the team a spot in the fourth through eighth place ordinals and ultimately a sixth-place finish.

"It's always disappointing when a team doesn't perform to their fullest potential but I'm proud of how I team held their heads high and were great sports about it" acknowledged Franchock. "We're looking forward to training this program more and executing a more confident and polished program at our next event."

After a short Thanksgiving break, Collegiate will return to practice next week and wrap up Fall Semester competitions at the Dr. Porter Classic in Ann Arbor, Mich. The team will compete on Sunday, December 8 against eight other programs from the East Coast and Midwest.