3:33 p.m., Sept. 3, 2008----Figure skaters who train at the University of Delaware's acclaimed Ice Skating Science Development Center are competing internationally this fall.

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Ice dancers Chloe Wolf and Rhys Ainsworth recently competed in their first international event, finishing ninth at the Junior Grand Prix event held Aug. 27-30 in Courchevel, France. The skaters are coached by Karen Ludington.

Currently competing in the Junior Grand Prix Italy, which is being held Sept. 3-7 in Merano, Italy, are ladies freestyle skater Melissa Bulanhagui and ice dancers Isabella Cannuscio and Ian Lorello.

Bulanhagui finished fifth in the 2007 Junior Grand Prix event in Sofia, Bulgaria, and eighth in the 2008 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Cannuscio and Lorello finished fourth in the 2007 Junior Grand Priz event in Romania and eighth in Bulgaria, and finished ninth as juniors at the U.S. championships. All are coached by Karen Ludington.

Ice dancers Sara Bailey and Kyle Herring will compete in the Junior Grand Prix event in Mexico City Sept. 10-14. Bailey is a freshman at the University of Delaware and Herring is a sophomore. They are coached by Christie Moxley.

Clara Peters, who trains at UD and represents Ireland, will compete in Junior Grand Prix events in Ostrava, Czech Republic, from Sept. 17-21 and in Madrid, Spain, from Sept. 24-28. Peters is coached by Ron and Karen Ludington.

Ladies freestyle skater Megan Williams-Stewart, who trains at UD and represents Puerto Rico, will compete in the Karl Schafer Memorial in Vienna, Austria, from Oct. 14-17 and in Skate Celje in Celje, Slovenia, from Nov. 6-9. She is coached by Geoff DiGregorio.

UD's Ice Skating Science Development Center is one of the world's leading training sites, a year-around facility designed to meet the needs of first-time competitors and champions alike. The ISSDC, which is housed in state-of-the-art facilities on the UD campus in Newark, Del., provides the most complete training environment in the country.

Skaters have access to two ice surfaces, at the Fred Rust Ice Arena and the Gold Ice Arena, as well as strength and aerobic training rooms and a dance studio. Coaching is available from the finest national and international coaches in the sport of figure skating. Their concentrations include figures, freestyle, pairs, dance and stroking. Furthermore, UD faculty work closely with the World and Olympic coaches in the program to advance the body of knowledge in figure skating, with research areas in sports medicine, exercise physiology, biomechanics and sports psychology. Through cooperative efforts, they provide students with the most up-to-date training programs available.

Ron Ludington is the director of the Ice Skating Science Development Center. He is a World and Olympic figure skating coach who has worked with numerous Olympians and national and international medalists. He is a member of the Ice Skating Hall of Fame, World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, Professional Skating Hall of Fame and Ice Skating Institute Hall of Fame.

Many figure skating champions have trained at UD's ISSDC, most recently Kimmie Meissner, a national and world champion. National champions have included the pair teams Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn, who won in 2004, and Calla Urbanski and Rocky Marval, who won in both 1992 and 1993, and dance teams April Sargent and Russ Witherby, who won in 1992, and Suzanne Semanick and Scott Gregory, who won in both 1987 and 1988. Olympic champions have included ice dancers Oksana Gritschuk and Evgeni Platov of Russia, who made UD their training base and won gold in 1994.

Article by Neil Thomas
Photo by Kathy Atkinson