Jaclyn Beviano, who will be a senior at Linden High School in the fall, most recently won a bronze medal in the Eastern Region Championship roller skating competition on June 26th in Delanco, N.J.
Placing third in the freestyle division, Beviano qualifies for the 2018 USA Roller Sports Roller Figure Skating National Championships, which will take place in Lincoln, Neb., from July 22 to 25. It will be her second time competing at the national competition.
Beviano, who has been skating since 2008, said she is friends with the first- and second-place winners, so she is happy to be moving on with them.
“I can’t wait for nationals,” she said.
Officials say Beviano is coached by Mary and Al Dunham at the Woodbridge Community Center, where she too coaches young children, as well as novice roller skaters well into adulthood.
The sport is not as well-known as ice figure skating, so people have misconceptions about it, Beviano said.
“It’s just like ice skating, but it’s so much harder to be on wheels,” she said. “The skates are like 20 pounds, which makes it harder for the jumps. “Lots of my kids say, ‘There’s no way you can do an Axel on roller skates. That’s only an ice skating thing.’ But no, it’s both.”