A year after being crowned national novice women’s champion, Rachel Pettitt is headed back to the biggest figure skating event of the year.

The 16-year-old Whitehorse native punched her ticket to the 2016 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships with a top-10 finish at 2016 Skate Canada Challenge in Edmonton, last weekend.

Pettitt finished with 120.71 points, good for ninth overall in the field of 54. The top-18 junior skaters will now head to Halifax, N.S., for nationals Jan. 18 to 24, 2016.

“I’m really happy that I qualified,” Pettitt said this morning, admitting she felt nervous butterflies competing at her first national junior meet.

“I felt pretty nervous in my short program,” she said. “Even in my practices and warm-ups, I almost felt like I didn’t belong. So I didn’t have the best skate of my life in the short. I’m just saving my best one for at Canadians.”

Pettitt acknowledged feeling intimidated competing against older skaters, some of whom are two years her senior.

Ontario’s Amanda Tobin won gold with 130.11 total points.

“She did what she needed to do,” Trish Pettitt said of her daughter’s performance. “It’s her first year going up to juniors and there’s a few things that she could have skated better. But overall, the point is to get through to (nationals).

“So we’re right on target. We don’t want to be peaking now anyways.”

Pettitt was one of three Yukon figure skaters competing, alongside Bryn Hoffman and Mikayla Kramer.

Hoffman, 18, competed in both junior singles and pairs, alongside partner Bryce Chudak.

She finished 39th overall in singles, with a total score of 91.08.

The result was a disappointment for Hoffman, who was hoping to qualify for nationals as a singles skater, one year after competing alongside the country’s best in pairs.

“Because we did get the two international assignments in September, I took two months off training singles completely,” she explained. “I was injured, so my body couldn’t handle training four times a day.”

In pairs, Hoffman and Chudak finished fifth out of 11 with 118.84 total points, less than two points away from a bronze-medal finish.

The two were in second place following the short program, but couldn’t close the deal in the free.

“We obviously didn’t skate very well at all,” Hoffman said. “It was one our worst programs ... I think there were three or four falls.”

Ontario pair Hope McLean and Trennt Michaud won gold after scoring 134.20 points.

Hoffman and Chudak will also compete at nationals next month after qualifying via their Grand Prix assignments earlier this season.

For Kramer, the event served as her national championship, as pre-novice skaters do not participate at nationals.

The 13-year-old finished 21st out of 60 skaters with 79.66 points.

“She was very proud of herself for being able to earn that spot (at sectionals),” her mom, Christine Benedek, said this morning from Kelowna, B.C.

“She has ideas in her head and she’s been able to reach some of those goals. And I think she will continue to do that as she progresses in her skating career.”

Kramer, who attempted a triple for the first time at Challenge, will return to Whitehorse in January after spending six months training in Kelowna.

British Columbia’s Vasilisa Matantseva set a new Canadian record in the pre-novice category with 107.41 points en route to gold.

“What a special week it was to be able to see three Whitehorse-born skaters compete at Challenge,” Arctic Edge Skating Club coach Michelle Semaschuk told the Star.

“From what I know, this has to be the most skaters from this small town at the same nation-wide event and also in different disciplines of the sport.

“This is such a large event with so many amazing skaters and it is clear our girls belong there. We are so proud of them for their achievements and for the wonderful individuals they continue to become. What an inspiration and accomplishment.”

“I thought it was super cool,” added Hoffman of the high Yukon content. “I was honestly pretty excited.”