AREA COUPLE AGAIN HEADED TO FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

When the spotlight shines on ice skating's national championships next week, Matt Buttrey and Sarah Booth will be there.

The local pair will skate in Rhode Island at the United States Figure Skating National Championships. The competition begins Monday. They will skate Feb. 8 and 9.

Buttrey, 18, is a senior at Scott City High School. Booth, 13, is in seventh grade at Woodland High School.

Last year Buttrey and Booth earned a bronze medal at their skill level in the national championships in Detroit. The day after they competed, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted.

Last year they skated in the novice division. Over the summer they tested to compete at the junior level.

"That's the biggest jump you have," Buttrey said, "bigger even than from junior to senior. As a novice you can only do three lifts; as a junior you can do as many lifts and throws as you want, and they add a minute to the program."

Olympic skaters compete at the senior level.

Booth and Buttrey haven't stopped competing since they performed at the national contest last year.

They placed fifth at the Olympic Festival held in St. Louis. They placed first in junior pairs at regional competition held in Milwaukee, and then placed fourth in Midwestern Sectional Championships in Denver in December.

The top four pairs advance to the national competition.

It is unusual for a pair to earn a spot at the national contest during their first year at the junior level.

Buttrey said, "We didn't expect that at all."

"We were really surprised we made it," Booth said. "We were hoping to get in the top 10."

Other skaters in the contest were veterans at the junior level. "They know how it goes," she said.

The altitude in Denver took a toll on skaters competing there.

"Our coach said our endurance and energy really made a difference," Booth said.

The key to successful pair-skating should be unison and how well a pair relates to each other. But, the two agreed, a large portion of the judges' scores are based on lifts.

"We usually score really high on artistic points," Buttrey said. "But at regionals and mids, we did so much better in our short program."

The short program includes eight compulsory technical elements; the long program allows more freedom and choreography.

Booth and Buttrey skate their short program to hoedown music and the long program is a French ballet.

Their dream is to compete in the Olympics, a dream they have held since they first started skating together at ages 12 and 7.

Whether they compete in an Olympics depends on many factors. "We will probably skate a couple of years of juniors," Booth said.

"Then a couple of years as seniors," Buttrey said. "Then it has to be an Olympic year."

Buttrey graduates from high school this spring. He plans to attend Southeast Missouri State University and continue skating.

They skate almost every day, travel to St. Louis at least three times a week, and occasionally skate in Indianapolis with a choreographer.

As they advance in the skating ranks, costs go up. They pay for rink time, coaching, choreography, costumes and travel. So far their parents have footed the bills.

Booth and Buttrey hope to assemble some sponsors to help finance their ice-skating endeavors.