When it comes to ice, UD is hot

Kimmie Meissner skated her way to a national championship this year, leading the University’s large and strong contingent at the 2007 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash.

Meissner, who captured the International Skating Union world championship in 2006, was crowned the new national champion in January. The UD Figure Skating Club competitor won the short program and built a lead that stood up when second-place finisher Emily Hughes fell on a triple flip during the free skate. Meissner scored a total of 181.68 points to 180.86 for Hughes.

The third-place finisher with a strong long program, Alissa Czisny, skated on Jackson Ultima ProFlex hinged skates, which were developed at UD by James G. Richards, Distinguished Professor of Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences and associate dean of the College of Health Sciences. Czisny was on campus last spring to demonstrate the boots, which are designed to reduce the joint injuries that plague many competitive skaters by allowing their ankles to flex and thereby cushion their landings.

Meissner, joined by Hughes and Czisny on the U.S. world team, returned from the Pacific Northwest to prepare to defend her world title at this year’s championships in Tokyo, where she finished fourth.

The senior at Fallston (Md.) High School has been training at the University’s internationally renowned Ice Skating Science Development Center since she was 8 and plans to enroll in courses at UD in the fall semester.

She is the University’s first ladies national champion and is the first American woman since Barbara Roles-Williams, the 1960 Olympic bronze medalist who now is a coach at the Ice Skating Science Development Center, to win national championships at the novice, junior and senior levels.

During a televised post-championship interview on ABC with 1984 Olympic silver medalist Peter Carruthers, Meissner recognized her many UD teammates who competed at nationals. When Carruthers commented that during warm-ups someone had yelled out, “Kimmie, you’re hot,” she said it is a phrase of endearment among UD Figure Skating Club members. “It’s a Delaware thing,” she told Carruthers.

After her victory, Meissner flew to New York to film a television commercial for Subway, signed endorsement deals with Subway, Under Armour and Visa and then appeared on NBC’s Today show.

“We had a banner season, again,” Ron Ludington, director of the Ice Skating Science Development Center, says of the national competition. “The kids were terrific. When we left Newark, they were trained and ready to go, and the results were very good.”

Ludington says Meissner’s victory was not a “done deal” heading into nationals. “There was a lot of pressure on her as world champion, and I thought she handled it quite well,” he says. “She was able to get into focus. The great thing about Kimmie is that nothing around her bothers her at all. She is very cool under pressure and can laugh and joke at rinkside.”

Also named to the U.S. world team were UD ice dancers Melissa Gregory and Denis Petukhov, who finished second to Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto in the national championships. UD teammates Kimberly Navarro and Brent Bommentre finished fourth and were named alternates to the international team.

World ice dance champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria, who train at the University, were scheduled to compete in Tokyo as well.

Also at nationals, UD junior pairs skaters Bridget Namiotka and John Coughlin, who finished in ninth place in the senior division, were named to the world team. UD’s Kaela Pflumm and Christopher Pottenger were named world team alternates after finishing fourth in juniors at nationals. The World Junior Championships were held Feb. 26-March 4 in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Among other UD skaters at nationals:

In senior ladies, Meissner was joined by teammates Melissa Bulanhagui, who finished 12th, and Megan Williams-Stewart, who finished 13th overall and had a strong 10th place finish in the free skate. In senior men, Shaun Rogers finished eighth, Jordan Miller finished 12th, Craig Ratterree finished 16th, and Geoffry Varner finished 17th. In senior dance, Kate Slattery and Chuen Gun Lee finished 11th.

Among juniors, Adam Rippon finished in sixth place in the men’s competition, Meg Byrne and Nate Bartholomay finished sixth in pairs, Clare Farrell and Chase Fishpaw finished in10th place, and Lindsay Cohen and Evan Roberts finished 11th in junior dance.

In novice dance, Sara Bailey and Kyle Herring finished second, and Anastasia Cannuscio and Dean Copely finished third. Isabella Cannuscio and Ian Lorello finished fourth, and Genevieve Deutch and Alex Lorello finished eighth. In novice pairs, Minna Lee and Taylor Toth finished in seventh place.