Sports
Short Hills Skaters Soar with Skyliners: Juniors to Represent Team USA
Virginia Barney, Jessica Hu and Audrey Laude of Short Hills will help the Skyliners literally take on the world.
SHORT HILLS, NJ — New Jersey residents Virginia Barney, Jessica Hu and Audrey Laude of Short Hills, Michaela Kaminski of Whippany, Emily Kirillov of Fair Lawn and Alexandra Perez of Gladstone will help the Skyliners Junior Team USA team literally take on the world.
According to a team news release, the skaters will compete in the US Synchronized Skating Nationals on Feb. 23-24 in Rockford, Illinois, and the ISU 2017 World Junior Synchornized Skating Championships on March 10-11 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Capping a stellar 2016-17 season, the junior line of the Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team secured Team USA 1 status at the 2017 World Junior Team Selection event in Simsbury, Connecticut, winning the event by 23 points against the best junior synchro teams in the nation. Their performance earned them one of the two spots representing the United States at the World Junior Synchronized Skating Championships in Mississauga, Canada on March 10-11, 2017.
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This marks the seventh time that Skyliners Junior has been named to the World team, the release stated.
“It’s been an incredible season both nationally and internationally, the skaters have been on fire,” said Josh Babb, Skyliners Head Coach and Director of Synchronized Skating. “We are extremely excited and honored to again be chosen to represent the United States at Worlds along with the Lexettes from Hayden Synchro.”
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Skyliners Junior skaters earned gold at both the New England Challenge Cup in Massachusetts in October, and the Porter Classic in Ann Arbor, Michigan in December with a combination of their “Gangster Hip Hop” short program and “Last of the Mohicans” free skate.
Internationally, Skyliners Junior has represented Team USA at two competitions this season. In January, Skyliners took gold at the Cup of Berlin in Germany. And in early February, they took bronze at the French Cup in Rouen, France.
“These skaters work extremely hard and practice long hours to perform at the level they have,” said Babb. “We cannot wait to compete in March alongside the best junior synchro teams in the world.”
Visit the Skyliners at www.skylinerssynchro.com to learn more about the team.
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