The women’s figure skating club opens competition this weekend at the 2013 Bronco Challenge Cup.The competition starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 26 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Team coach and captain, junior Mikenzie Frost, said the program includes an individual portion as well as a team portion.

“Individual is when the girls do their programs, so basically the stuff you see on TV is the individual portion,” Frost said. “Then we have the team event. The team event is broken down into a low team, an intermediate team and a high team. Each one has six elements and it’s a lot of fun for us.”

Last season, Frost said the ’Cats saw about eight teams at this tournament, and they expect the competition to be high.

Participating competitors in 2012 included schools such as Michigan State, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Miami-Ohio and Adrian College.

Frost said the team is really excited about the tournament, and that the team has a good shot at placing.

“We don’t have all the girls going because it is family weekend and some people already had their family coming up, which is kind of unfortunate, so we’re only having low team compete,” Frost said. “We have five individual events, but I think our low team can do pretty well.”

Last season the women’s figure skating team only entered one tournament.

The women’s low team took first place in the competition.

This year, Frost said the team is looking to repeat and improve on last year’s finish.

“The next two competitions we’re going to have a low, intermediate and a high team, and at least five more individual events,” Frost said. “I think that we have a good chance of qualifying for nationals this year.”

This season, the team has been added to the U.S. Figure Skating Association website. The new addition to the website has helped increase knowledge about the program at NMU.

Freshman Jodi Wizauer, who has been skating since she was four, is a prime example of this.

Wizauer said the figure skating club team was an influence on her decision to attend NMU.

“I really wanted to skate,” Wizauer said. “I’m from Sault Ste. Marie, so I could have went to Lake State, but I came up here because I wanted to skate.”

The team will be participating in three competitions throughout the year in hopes of a trip to Nationals. Last season was the first year the team was active after NMU went several years without a figure skating club team.

The girls plan to compete, in addition to the competition this weekend, in February and March. If they make it, the girls will also participate in Nationals in April.

Frost said there have been a large number of incoming freshman this season that show potential to help the team in a positive way through hard work at practices with the team.

“The freshmen are really dedicated, which is really good and it surprised me,” Frost said. “I was excited with their dedication to the team and their willingness to come to practice and work hard.”

Wizauer said the team also performs at the intermissions of several of the men’s hockey games, as well as the club hockey games.

The girls find time to do so in addition to the competitions throughout the year.

Wizauer said the team members work well together, and find bonding time together.

“We get along really good and we all hang out on the ice and talk,” Wizauer said. “We have stuff planned, and we get to have a six-hour car ride all together, so that will be a good bonding experience.”

Watch for the NMU women’s figure skating club team online on www.usfsa.org, on Facebook under the name NMU Figure Skating Team, or on the Twitter handle @NMUSkating.

“We appreciate all of the support that Rec Sports gives us,” Frost said. “They support us a lot and we appreciate everything they do for us.”