This weekend, the Icettes will skate with extra confidence when they compete at the Blades of March.

This is because in mid-February, the girls placed third overall at the ISI Winter Classic, a national competition held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Head Coach Rachelle Johnson described the team’s achievement as the “biggest highlight of the season so far”, adding that the skaters had to compete in multiple team and individual events in order to secure the title.

The Icettes’ synchronized skating performance was particularly impressive because, according to Coach Johnson, the team had only two months to put together their program. “We of course have small things we need to work on, like everyone remembering all the steps with the counts and transitions between formations,” she commented. “Our skaters come together as a team to skate as one unit on the ice and do it in such a short time. Not many skaters can do what these Synchro skaters can do.”

Eagan senior member Caroline Wittenburg was especially proud of the accomplishment because of how many teams were at the competition. However, she also said that the team’s recent success has not impacted their training schedule. “We still have hours of practices every day, so it gets tiring, especially around Finals time. It gets really stressful because we are at the rink until ten or eleven at night trying to put numbers together, but it all works out in the end,” she shared.

After their final competition this weekend, the Icettes will begin focusing on their annual ice show, where they will perform all of their competition routines, as well as some new ones. “When the show draws near all we concentrate on is running programs, putting costumes together, and making props along with the set on ice,” Coach Johnson remarked. “As head coach I am very proud of each and every one of my skaters,” she continued. “The hard work, dedication and commitment these 36 skaters have is unlike any other team I have seen or ever coached.”