Whitehorse figure skaters welcomed their counterparts from Inuvik, N.W.T., and Juneau for a friendly competition last Saturday.

The Yukon Gold Nugget Championships was held Saturday at the Canada Games Centre.

The annual event gives skaters a chance to display their skills in a fun, supportive setting.

Arctic Edge Skating Club coach Michelle Semaschuk was impressed by her skaters’ performances.

“It was probably the best year I’ve ever seen,” Semaschuk told the Star. “The girls did amazing. As a whole, they did a great job. We had a lot of compliments from the judges who came up (from B.C.).”

The loss of longtime coach Trish Pettitt, who is working with her daughter, Rachel, at the Kelowna Skating Club, has been challenging for the Whitehorse club, but skaters have stepped up their game this season, Semaschuk added.

“A lot of the girls took ownership for their skating,” she said. “A lot of them took it upon themselves to put in the time.”

Three Arctic Edge skaters earned multiple honours at the championships.

Landyn Blisner topped both the intro women category (27.41) and Elements 2 women’s group (5.20), Alissa Russell recorded the high score in both senior B creative women (28.05) and Star 5 girls (16.82), and Jamie Nickel placed first in Star 4 and Elements 1 women (4.70).

Other local winners included Jenelle Clethero (28.76 in bronze women), Sarah Milton (19.39 in junior creative women Group 1), Emma Riske (17.42 in junior creative women Group 2) and Chloe VanLankveld (19.43 in junior creative women Group 3). Mikayla Kramer was evaluated by the judges in pre-novice and received a personal best score of 64.13.

Aimee Lien was the top Level 1 skater among Special Olympics participants, while Michael Sumner took the top ranking in Level 2.

Star 1, 2 and 3 skaters were assessed against a standard and given a report card with their individual assessments.

Visiting skaters who logged top performances included Inuvik’s Maddysen Kingmiaqtuq Devlin (15.09 in pre-juvenile women), Juneau’s Josephine Zuelow (26.99 in senior A creative women), and Inuvik’s Kendall Allen (20.76 in pre-intro women).

Inuvik had 15 skaters compete, Juneau sent four skaters, and Special Olympics Yukon brought four skaters.

The host Arctic Edge club saw 19 skaters hit the ice.

Prior to the event, the club held two test evenings, which included pairs skating with Canadian ice dancer Thomas Williams.

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Whitehorse figure skater Bryn Hoffman has qualified for the Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Kingston, Ont., next month.

Hoffman, 17, and pairs partner Bryce Chudak placed fifth out of 11 teams in junior pairs at Skate Canada Challenge in Montreal.

The duo collected 103.82 points in their short and free programs.