Sports
Two Jacksonville Pairs Head to Salt Lake City for 2027 U.S. Figure Skating Championships
The First Coast Figure Skating Club is sending a brother-sister junior team and a juvenile pair to nationals in January, capping a season that included a first-place finish in Boston and a comeback from injury.
Two pairs from Jacksonville's First Coast Figure Skating Club will compete at the 2027 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Salt Lake City in January, the club confirmed, giving a local training program at the Community First Igloo a national stage.
The junior pairs entry is siblings Devin and Juliet Meek, ages 17 and 14. The brother-sister team trains about three hours a day, splitting time between pairs work and individual sessions, and credits their shared household with an unusually smooth partnership.
"We kind of just work together whenever we want, and it's great because we don't have the same arguments or anything that other teams do," Devin said.
The pair arrives in Utah with momentum: earlier this month they took first place in junior pairs at the U.S. Pairs Finals in Boston. Juliet said the improvement this season has come less from harder tricks than from execution.
"I think this year, in our skating, we've improved a lot just in general, like with everything," she said. "Not necessarily doing harder elements, just how we perform the elements."
Their programs lean on the athletic demands of pairs skating. "We do lots of lifts, so I'll lift her over my head with one arm. We'll do throws where I'll throw her and she'll spin three times," Devin said.
The second Jacksonville entry is the juvenile pairs team of Savannah Wiggins, 12, and Taylor Meek, 11, who placed third at the U.S. Pairs Finals. The pair has been expanding its repertoire, adding a throw double loop and a death spiral.
"Probably the biggest thing that we learned was the throw double loop and death spiral," Wiggins said.
Taylor's path back to competition was harder. He broke his ankle last year and was sidelined for five months, a stretch that tested his commitment before it sharpened it.
"At first, it was kind of like a break, then it was like â I want to go back to skating," he said.
Both teams are now at full strength. For a city better known for its riverfront and its football, the pair of berths is a marker of how far the First Coast club has come â and a reminder that elite winter sport in Florida depends on rink access and sustained coaching, not geography alone. The Meek siblings' mother coaches the junior team, keeping training in the family.
The 2027 U.S. Championships are set for January in Salt Lake City, the 2002 Olympic host city and a longtime hub for American figure skating.