Morgan Hill’s Candice, Ashley Clifford combine for nine medals
at nationals
PEORIA, ILL. — Candice and Ashley Clifford had an excellent view of their final Figure Skating National Championships at the elementary and juvenile levels.
They couldn’t get off the podium.
The Morgan Hill sisters earned medals in each of their categories last month in Peoria, Ill., with 11-year-old Ashley collecting five, and Candice four, including her first two gold medals on the national stage. Candice, 12, won the elementary ‘A’ freestyle and ‘B’ figures competitions on top of placing second in ‘A’ creative solo dance, her specialty, and fourth in ‘B’ solo dance — good for bronze.
“It was a really good weekend,” said Candice, who was one point away from placing first in creative solo dance. “My creative was pretty good. Last year I got eighth. This year, I almost won it.”
Her bronze medal in solo dance felt as good as gold. Candice didn’t advance through preliminaries in her two previous appearances.
“Just getting to finals was wonderful,” Ashley and Candice’s mother, Lori, said. “She was on such a high.”
Ashley nearly lived up to her goal of winning five gold medals. After scoring the highest in each of her five elimination skates, she won her second straight gold in elementary ‘A’ inlines and teamed with Brazil’s Gustavo Casado to capture their fourth consecutive pairs title at the sophomore level.
“When we went out, (Gustavo) said, ‘We’ve been in this event for three years. It’s time for a change,'” Ashley recalled. “I said, ‘I like this event. We keep on winning it.'”
Ashley also earned a silver medal in juvenile ‘A’ figures and placed third in juvenile ‘A’ solo dance and freestyle, which she won in 2007 and 2008.
“I’m happy overall,” said Ashley, a 13-time national medalist. “I had only one bad turn throughout three sets of figures; only one turn bumped be down to second.”
The two Crossroads Christian School students skated 18 times combined at the three-week event, which returns to Peoria next year. Candice and Ashley hope to make the trip back as freshman and elementary skaters.
“As you move up to a higher age bracket, the competition gets higher,” said their father, Scott, a certified roller figure skating judge. “Their routines will be 30 seconds longer — that makes it a lot more difficult.
“It’s just a continuation of your training and hard work.”
That training has already begun for Candice. Ashley, meanwhile, is taking time off to recover from a stress fracture in her leg. Once healthy, she will have her sight set on gracing the podium again.
“I would like to get up there. I’d like to win,” she said.
“I just want to make nationals,” Candice added. “This was a great way to end the year.”
