WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. Lowell, Massachusetts. February 25, 2005: In as tight a finish as you'll ever see in a skating competition, The Hockettes of Ann Arbor Michigan, skating an fast, elegant, expressive sophisticated Free Skate to Beauty and The Beast withstood an exciting challenge from the Chicago Jazz skating to The Extra Terrestrial.

The Hockettes had 4 clean firsts and 1 share with second. Chicago had 4 first places and 1 tie. The Chicago Jazz had they not had one bump together and fall, might have pulled it out, but their effort as the last team to skate was a marvel of pressure skating. The Hockettes skated with confidence, withstood one small spin off of a line and a slightly skewed backward splice lunge it was that close. Team Elan of Grand Rapids was third and The Colonials with a splendid skate finished fourth.

In the Novice program skated earlier in the day the Chicago Jazz took their second first place in two competitions. Team Image, the tri-state area team despite a powerful strong skate of the Cage Aux Faux program was placed last despite four other teams having disasterous falls in their programs. The girls were pumped by the way they skated their Novice  routine -- totally clean -- and were not down at all. The Starlights of Skokie Valley Illinois were second; the Crystallettes of Dearborn Michigan were Third and Gems on Ice of Plymouth, Michigan, Fourth.

The Skyliners of Mount Vernon finished 10th in the novice program.

In the Junior Free Skate Team Image hung in there, corrected their bad luck skate of Thursday evening and finished as the 15th best team of the 16 teams in the division, moving up a notch.