Denali skaters fare well in Fairbanks

In the first weekend of May, members of Soldotna's Denali Figure Skating club traveled to Fairbanks to take part in the Sourdough Figure Skating Competition.

Hillary Schneider and Katie Shearer took second and third place for non-test girls. For pre-preliminary girls 10 and under, second went to Courtney Nesslage and third was taken by Cali Warta. In pre-preliminary girls 11 and older, Joohee Kim placed first with Sarin Warta getting second.

First place in the preliminary boys category went to Jacob Shearer. Tory Coursen and Kayla Yamamoto got first and second in pre-juvenile girls, respectively. Christine Gibbs rounded out area finishers with a third place in the open juvenile competition.

Coursen also won one of two special artistic awards for the pre-juvenile and under's most artistic skater.

"I am so happy with the way all of these skaters went out and skated their programs to the best of their ability," said Denali Ice Club coach Sherry Nesslage. "They went out and gave 100 percent and were able to reap the rewards for all their hard work."

Since the ice was removed from the Soldotna Sports Center, the Denali Ice Club has been practicing at the Tesoro Sports Center in Anchorage.