New Canaan Students Crowned Synchronized Skating Champions

NEW CANAAN, CT- Three residents with the Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team brought home gold from the 2016 national championship held in Kalamazoo, MI.

“It’s been a record season for Skyliners,” said Josh Babb, Skyliners Head Coach and Director of Synchronized Skating. “As our team grows, so do our accomplishments. Our skaters work extremely hard, and their efforts have really paid off this year.”

Kat Root, Nikka Staron and Lucy Potter, all students at Saxe Middle School, are members of the Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team. Root, a sixth-grader skates on the Juvenile Line. The line won eight number one placements from the nine-judge panel.

Staron and Potter are 8th-grade students and skate on the Intermediate Line. They earned their best score of the season at the competition and the first championship for the line.

“From starting the season with an almost entirely new team, to winning Nationals, was an amazing journey”, said Root about her fifth year as a Skyliner and first year on the Juvenile Line.

The Skyliners Synchronized Skating Team was established in 2001 by a group of parents who wanted to create the most competitive synchronized skating club in the tri-state area. In that first year, the team had three lines. Now in its 15th year, Skyliners has grown into one of the top synchronized skating teams in the country with 11 lines and 190 skaters ranging in age from 5 to 26.

Pictured: Lucy Potter is the 5th from the left in the first row, Nikka Staron is the 5th from the right in the first row and Kat Root is the 6th from the right in the second row.