Three Tidewater Figure Skaters Place at Adult Nationals

Three members of the Tidewater Figure Skating Club competed at the U.S. Adult Nationals competition, held at the Polar Ice House in Wake Forest, NC from April 18 - 22.

 

All three – Natalie Bare and Coralie Raunig of Williamsburg, as well as Renee Popperback of Hampton, placed in the top-ten for their various age groups.

Bare had the highest placing among the trio, winning the silver medal for her second-place finish in the Adult Bronze Dramatic Entertainment III competition. She also placed sixth in the Adult Bronze Light Entertainment III category.

However, it may have been Raunig who walked away with the day’s biggest honor. Competing in the 66-85 age group, the 85-year old became the initial recipient of the Yvonne Dowlin trophy, for being the oldest competitor at the Championships. Raunig’s name will be engraved on the trophy, which will then be forwarded to the Figure Skating Museum in Colorado Springs, CO.

Raunig has been skating since the age of three, but she took a 45-year break from competition after getting married at the age of 19.

“I stopped skating because I was raising my four children and working as a special education teacher with the Newport News school system,” said Raunig, who trains three mornings a week at the Hampton Roads Iceplex in Yorktown.

After retiring from NNPS in 1996, Raunig pulled out her old skates and hit the ice once again. However, there was one problem.

“My skates were like the kind Sonja Henie (three-time Olympic gold medalist in 1928, 1932, and 1936) used to wear. They looked like boots. People saw me wearing those skates and couldn’t stop laughing.”

Undaunted, Raunig retooled her plan to match the times. “I went out and bought a new pair of skates, and also got a coach in Luis Lovett, who works with me one morning a week.” Lovett helped the octogenarian prepare for her program, which featured the songs “Copacabana” and “Girl from Ipanema.”

Reynolds, Eng Win D.O.G. Street Challenge

Robert Reynolds and Kathryn Eng won the men’s and women’s divisions at the Run the D.O.G. Street Challenge 5K, held in Williamsburg on April 22.

Reynolds, 26, won the overall race in 15:14, besting runner-up Adam Otstot by 30 seconds. Roger Hopper placed third in 16:10.

Eng also won by a wide margin, finishing in 18 minutes, 36 seconds ahead of second-place Ann Mazur. Octavia Rinehardt took third in 19:15.

Mark Tompkins (17:35) and Mercedes Castillo-D’Amico (21:46), both of Williamsburg, captured the men’s and women’s Masters (40-and-over) races. Tompkins finished 28 seconds ahead of Kevin White, while Castillo-D’Amico was followed to the finish line by fifty-five-year-old Karla Havens, who finished just eight seconds behind in 21:54.

HRA's Forbes Signs With Acro-Tumbling Team at Converse College

Alexis Forbes of Hampton Roads Academy signed a scholarship offer to compete for the fledgling Converse College acrobatics and tumbling team on April 15. Converse, an all-women’s school, is located in Spartanburg, SC, and is officially a member of the Division II Conference Carolinas. However, with barely a dozen schools nationwide sporting Acro/Tumbling teams, the Converse squad will be competing out-of-conference, and usually against larger schools, such as Baylor and Oregon.

For Forbes, her introduction to gymnastics started at a very young age, when the two-year old was enrolled for classes at World Class Gymnastics in Newport News. She started competing for World Class at the age of six, and then took a brief respite from the sport at 10. Several months later, she re-emerged with Gymnastics Inc. in Hampton, and finally collaborated with Coach Tony Hampton at Hurricane Gymnastics, where she has been for the past six years.

All along, she knew that the acrobatics and tumbling routines were her favorite parts of gymnastics. Upon learning of the new variation of the sport, she filled out various recruiting questionnaires to schools offering Acro/Tumbling as a sport and caught the eye of newly hired Valkyrie coach Keegan Johnson. In fact, said Forbes, her interest in Converse preceded any formal visit, because there was no coach to meet at the school.

“I had shown my interest and sent videos to Converse before they even hired Coach Johnson. I’m going to be a founding member of the team.”

Forbes will be one of 23 recruits to the first-year team. Yet, with so few squads competing, the tiny (820 undergraduate enrollees) school will be thrust into national competition from Day 1. That was one of the selling points for Johnson, an All-American gymnast at Baylor, as she built her first team.

“Coach Johnson told me, I’m going to have very high expectations for you. I’m going to work you guys hard. I want to win, and I mean it,” said Forbes.

Hard work and high achievement is nothing new for the Navigator senior. At HRA, Forbes has maintained a near straight “A” average throughout her middle and high school career. As she admits, “I did get a “B” in fifth grade English, but that was it.”

Her drive in the gym will have to sustain through the spring and summer months. Last October, Johnson hit her head on the balance beam and suffered a concussion, her third. However, this one kept her out of competition for the entire gymnastics season, and she is only now gathering her acrobatic bearings while competing in diving and track with the HRA teams. “The track is helping with my endurance, and when the season is over, I’ll be back in the gym.”

Forbes aims to major in either biology or pre-med at Converse, where the Acrobatics and Tumbling season will begin this November.