By Jasmine Born, Staff Writer
Five of River Hill’s very own figure skaters on the Chesapeake Diamonds team attended the 2023 Nations’ Cup at the Skating Club of Boston to represent the USA. The competition lasted from April 21st to April 23rd, 2023–and returned with extremely impressive results.
River Hill students Victoria Bush, Kristina Chao, Nicole Liang, Anna Sretenski, and Whitney Ye, competed in the national competition last week and their team, the Chesapeake Diamonds, left the rink in an astounding 5th place out of nine international teams. Their opponents ranged from other US teams to even Australian, French, and German competitors.
To prepare, the Chesapeake Diamonds had weekly practices the whole season leading up to it and senior Whitney Ye adds, “we would all practice separately for at least three days a week on our own time.” Whitney has been on the Chesapeake Diamonds team for about six years and is a gold medalist for her moves on the ice.
Double gold medalist, co-captain of the Chesapeake Diamonds, and junior at River Hill, Anna Sretenski, explains how they continued practicing once they arrived in Boston by having both one official and unofficial practice daily, sometimes even more. Regardless of the tiring dedication she put in, Anna says, “I felt pretty excited throughout the days we stayed in Boston.”
The Nations’ Cup consisted of “choreographed exercises” and then “free ballet”–also known as freestyle. The choreographed exercise routine put on by the Chesapeake Diamonds put them in 4th place right behind those tied in 2nd and 3rd. Their phenomenal placement was a pleasant surprise, notes Whitney and she says “I honestly had zero expectations” going into the competition. Anna had the same thought process and said, “I feel like we had no expectations going in and after the first program we were pumped.” Whitney admits they dropped to 5th place due to some failures in the freestyle portion, but 5th place in an international competition is still undeniably impressive.
And for not having a big standing in the theater on ice scene, “like the Boston or Los Angeles teams” says Whitney, the Chesapeake Diamonds stood their ground in the competition and remained a fierce competitor.
Being ranked 5th in the world is clearly no joke, so it is fair to say that the 2023 Nations’ Cup was most definitely a success for the talented figure skaters at River Hill, part of the Chesapeake Diamonds.