Last weekend, eight of the UCLA Figure Skating Club members flew to Denver, Colorado to compete in the Pioneer Open, the final qualifying competition of the season.

The weekend got off to a bit of a rough start, as their flight was delayed three hours on Friday and so they didn't arrive at the hotel until past 3am! But luckily they had some time to sleep on Saturday morning, and after a late brunch they had their energy back and were ready for competition.

The first event was the Intermediate Ladies Short Program, with president Alexandra Overy putting out a solid performance to finish in 5^th place. This was followed by the Senior Ladies Short Program, which had a big field of strong competitors. Allison Hsu put out a fun performance, highlighted by a lovely double loop, to finish 10^th in her first ever collegiate competition. Julia Feng followed up with a light and entertaining program to finish 7^th, and freshman Elena Pulkinen skated beautifully, despite slight problems with the music system, to finish in 1^st place.

The team then turned to ice dance, with Julia Feng on the ice again for her Juvenile Pattern Dance where she skated with lovely flow to win the gold! Marisa Goff was up next with a fierce and strong Paso Doble to finish in 4^th place, rounding out the first day of competition.

The Bruins had an early morning the next day, with the first event at 7:50am, so they headed back for some well-deserved rest.

Sunday started with ice dance again, Alexandra Overy competed in the Preliminary Dance, skating a graceful Dutch Waltz to finish in 5^th place. Julia Feng followed with another waltz, skating with good timing to finish 2^nd. Finishing out the ice dance events was Marisa Goff, who skated an elegant Rocker Foxtrot to finish in 4^th place in Junior Dance.

The events then turned back to free skating, with the Preliminary Ladies. The Bruins had two entrants in this event, Tassaya Charupatanapongse and Cecilia Li. Tassaya skated a lovely program, with some very high and smooth jumps, to finish in third place. Cecilia also skated well, in her first collegiate competition, with a stunning sit spin and some lovely artistry to win the silver medal.

This was followed up by a rather emotional Preliminary Men's event, as senior Adrian Siew was skating his last collegiate program. He skated with great power and some very fast spins to win the gold medal!

After a quick break, with just enough time for the traditional Panera lunch, the competition continued with the Juvenile Ladies. Marisa Goff skated with real passion and artistry, as well as including some new, difficult jumps, to finish a strong 5^th place. Alexandra Overy was up again after this, with the Intermediate Ladies Free Skate, where she put out some lovely spins to finish in 6^th place.

Julia Feng was the next Bruin to perform her long program, in the Senior Ladies event, and she skated with great determination to battle through the high altitude and finish in fourth place. The final individual event of the day was the Senior Ladies Championship Free Skate, where Elena Pulkinen put out an exquisite performance, with a solid double axel, to win gold!

The day ended with the team manoeuvre events, which are always good fun to finish with. The Low Team, comprised of Cecilia, Toffy, Ally and Marisa, skated well with huge support from the rest of the team, to finish 4^th out of 9 teams. The High Team, comprised of Adrian, Allison, Elena and Julia, also put out a strong showing, highlighted by a huge double lutz from Adrian and some lovely spins by Julia to win the gold! This was a great way to end the competition, especially as this was the last event for our graduating senior Adrian Siew.

One of the highlights of this competition was the team spirit, the team did more Eight Claps this weekend than in most of their college careers! By the end, some of the other schools were even joining in on the Bruin spirit. It was also wonderful to have two new members join us and have good first competition experiences.

UCLA finished the event in 3^rd overall, which the team should be very proud of given that they only had eight skaters.
Unfortunately, the Bruins finished 4^th in the Pacific Coast standings, so won't be making it to nationals, but they had a very strong season and are already planning to come back better than ever next year!