Philadelphia Skating Club hosted the Challenge Cup in September, a National Qualifying event with hundreds of skaters coming from all over the country in hopes to qualify for the US Nationals event in January in San Jose, California. Julia Epps ‘28 and her partner Blake Gilman earned a silver medal in a very competitive field of ice dance teams. At 12 years old, Julia is the youngest ice dance junior competitor in the USA that has entered the qualifying season! At the the US National Event in San Jose in January, Julia and Blake ranked 8th in the Junior level. One week later they traveled to Germany for Bavarian Open in Obersdorf where they competed in the Advanced Novice group and earned another silver medal. In December, Julia and Blake qualified for Team USA. “It was a great accomplishment because we had worked for it for a while. A highlight was getting our jackets, it meant all our work was paying off,” said Julia.