Rhythm Ropers shine at Provincial Skipping Championships
By Contributor
The Rhythm Ropers had a very successful Provincial championships Saturday and Sunday at the L.V. Rogers Hangar in Nelson.
The club this year had several new skippers who were competing in their first competition.
They started out the weekend by placing second in the 14-and-under large group category, which was great since their average age was only 10 years and it was their first time in large group.
The senior skippers then went out and skipped and amazing large group choreographed by Darren Fuss. This continued the RR domination in large group.
On the small team day the teams continued to find success.
The Candy Cane Ropers of Ashleigh MacLean, Sophie Packham, Lauren Robertson and Lauren Hartridge took a first in the four-man and had several second and third place finishes to end up second overall in the 8 and 9-year-old division.
The team was closely followed by the Rockin Ropers of Kaitlyn Fitchett, Willa Morrison, Amy Schellenberg and Elli Southam. Morrison and Fitchett led the group to a third place overall finish by placing first in their duo.
The club has two 10-11 year old teams. The young team of the Lollipop Ropers consisting of Ella Pelosa, Abby Jackson, Emily Schellenberg and Sierra Jones placed third overall.
Frankie Pierce, Makayla Shaw, Kalina Spurge, Michelle Oudemann and Kayleigh Foxcroft, known as the Funky Monkeys, placed fifth overall and did an excellent job on their Double Dutch Single freestyle placing first.
The Ropers of Kyle Poulin, Jordan Mulvihill, Ashley McKen, Danielle Solari, Tessa Exley burned up the four-speed events taking four firsts and set four new records while placing first overall. They had the highest freestyle scores of the tournament in both their double ditches and four-man.
The young SPF team of Joscelyn Koehle, Bradley Spurge, Lillea Goian and Emily Musa place second overall . They were led by a strong duo result by Joscelyn and Bradley.
The Raging Rapid Ropers comprised of Kate Exley, Christina Musa, Larissa Napora, Courtney Craig and Dana Knapik competed in the 18 + category and took firsts in Double Dutch Pairs Freestyle, Double Dutch Single Free four-man Freestyle and Double Dutch Pairs Speed.
They met the challenge from the very experienced Isensation from Abbotsford. At the end of the day they had to be happy with a second overall as Abbotsford beat them by one point.
Coach Brenda Reid was “impressed with the clubs results, especially since it is a rebuilding year as they have so many new skippers.”
“The new skippers had progressed very well and so they did not skip as Rookies for the usual two years but instead went straight into the National Stream.”
The senior skippers had regrouped after last years Worlds as some of our senior skippers had moved away and some were now in the workforce.
This was to be a year to adjust to the new combinations and begin to excel for next year which is another World’s year. So the results showed us that our combinations are very strong.
On Sunday the Rhythm Ropers participated in the Master Events which are all single or solo type events- 30 sec. speed, 3 minute endurance skip, double and triple unders and a solo freestyle routine to music.
In the mainstream, which are the skippers trying to earn a berth to the nationals the following skippers qualified.
7 and under – rookie Jessica Fitchett won ribbons in three events.
8 and 9 year olds – Ella Pelosa, Lauren Hartridge, Abby Jackson, Sophie Packham
10 and 11 year olds – Kalina Spurge and Michelle Oudemann as the alternate
12-14 year olds – Bradley Spurge
15-17 year olds – Ashley McKen, Tessa Exley, Larissa Napora, Dana Knapik, Christina Musa, Jordan Mulvihill and Kyle Poulin
18+ Kate Exley
In the Rookie Category several skippers did well in particular Joscelyn Koehle, Kaitlyn Fitchett, Willa Morrison, Amy Schellenberg, Elli Southam, Makayla Shaw, Frankie Pierce and Kayleigh Foxcroft.
Most of the jumpers skipped their goals and personal bests in the speed and power events Sunday so I was pleased with their results.
There are 13 events over the weekend so keeping every one in the zone and mentally prepared when the events come so quickly is a challenge for the coaches.
It helps to have a bag of tricks you can call on because different things work with different jumpers. Junior coaches Krista Maida and Baily Smith were great at assisting with the physical and emotional prep of the younger jumpers.
At the end of the day on Sunday Kyle Poulin challenged The triple Under record which he had set at Records Day and succeeded in breaking it. The old record had been consecutive triples and he set a new record of triples in two minutes.
Some other notable results had Sophie Packham winning the freestyle in the 8-9 category but closely followed by fellow teammates – Abby Jackson taking second, Lauren Hartridge taking third, Ella Peloso in fourth, Lauren Robertson sixth.
Michelle Oudemann in her first year of skipping took second out of 27 skippers in 10 -11 freestyle.
Tessa Exley took the third place in 15-17 category which was great for her first year in that division. Her sister Kate managed to repeat the placing in 18+ taking third in her first year in that very tough category jumping against veteran skippers like Rheanne Segstro, who once again took first in the category.
Kyle Poulin was first in the boys 15-17 and Bradley Spurge was first in 12-14 boys. In the Rookie Category Joscelyn Koehle took first in freestyle in the 12-14 category.
In the endurance skip Joscelyn Koehle, Jordan Mulvihill, Bradley Spurge and Kalina Spurge all had first place finishes and Dana Knapik took a second.
In 30 second speed Jordan led the way setting a new record and was followed by first place finishes by Ella Pelosa, Joscelyn Koehle and Bradley Spurge.
In power Ella Pelosa, Joscelyn Koehle took seconds. And Bradley Spurge, Kyle Poulin and Dana Knapik walked away with firsts.
The other teams felt the tournament was well run and that the banquet on Saturday night was delicious.
There were numerous comments on how beautiful Nelson is and how lucky we are to live here. Thanks to the great weather and the support of Nelson and the hard work of the Rhythm Roper parents and local volunteers the weekend was a huge success.
Now with all the RR qualifying for Nationals on July 19-21st in Calgary it is time to review score sheets and tweak routines to make them even more impressive.
