SCARBOROUGH – Morgan Sewall, 17, of Scarborough is one of only two skaters from Maine to advance to the U.S. Eastern Sectional Championships, which will be held in North Carolina the weekend of Nov. 18-22.

The sectional competition is the next stop on the road to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which will also be held in North Carolina in January. Sewall last competed at the national championships in 2012 and is hoping to make it back again in the New Year.

Sewall, who is a senior at Scarborough High School, belongs to the North Atlantic Figure Skating Club in Falmouth. Her coach is Matt Lind, who works out of the Colonial Figure Skating Club in Boxborough, Mass.

This is the third consecutive year that Sewall has qualified for the Eastern Sectional Championships. She earned her trip this time around after winning the free skate portion of the New England Regional Figure Skating Championships, held in Burlington, Vt., last week.

Sewall earned a silver medal in the senior ladies division, and the top four skaters from the Eastern Sectional Championships get the chance to compete at the national championships.

This week the Current spoke with Sewall about her skating and her hopes for the future.

Q: How long have you been skating and what do you most enjoy about the sport?

A: I started skating when I was 6. My mom took me to the Portland Ice Arena for a public skating session, and I told her I wanted to start taking lessons. What I like the most is mastering an element, such as a difficult jump. I find that very satisfying.

Q: How often do you practice and what’s the hardest part about competing?

A: I usually do two practice sessions a day, five to six days a week. I also do between four and five hours a week of off-ice training. What I find the most difficult about competing is staying mentally focused and not getting psyched out about the competition. Figure skating requires a lot of commitment, but I also don’t want people to just think of me as that girl who skates. There is more to me than just this.

Q: What is your music/program this season and why did you choose it?

A: I skate my short program to a concerto from “Finding Neverland” by Jan Kaczmarek. It’s a beautiful piece that shows my softer side. My long program is performed to “Scheherazade,” which was composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

It’s amazing music about a young princess, Scheherazade, who tells stories to the Arabian Sultan over the course of 1,001 nights. Scheherazade and her father devised the story sessions in order to avoid being beheaded.

My coach really wanted me to skate to “Scheherazade” because he felt I could really nail it. And I love the music. It is such a strong piece. “Finding Neverland” was also one of the pieces of music my coach chose, along with half a dozen other pieces.

Q: What have been some of your favorite competition programs?

A: I think my favorites are all what I would call strong pieces. At the novice level, for instance, I skated to “Requiem of a Dream” by the group Escala. At the junior level I skated to “Lily’s Theme” from the movie “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.” I just really love music that builds and builds to the end of the program.

Q: Who is your coach and what is he like?

A: My primary coach is Matt Lind. I work with him at the Colonial Figure Skating Club in Massachusetts. He is fully immersed in the sport of figure skating and is also a technical specialist, which means he knows the rules really well. He also has access to a great team of other coaches throughout U.S. figure skating that he can collaborate with about my programs.

He competed at the national and international level against the likes of Johnny Weir and others. He is funny, too, which helps me stay positive. My secondary coach is Jann Hull. I work with her here in Maine. She grew up skating in Boston and has also coached for clubs near Chicago, as well as the Dallas, area.

Q: Do you hope to compete on a national level at some point, and what are your plans for after high school?

A: I absolutely want to compete at the national level. This has been my goal for a long time – to make it to nationals at the senior level. I try not to focus on it though because I really need to take it one step at a time.

Right now I am applying to colleges in the Boston area and hope to study sports science. I also want to continue to skate.

Q: Do you have any other hobbies or belong to any clubs or organizations?

A: I am an honors student and like music and doing artistic things. I have recently started playing the guitar, and I played the trumpet until last year. I like photography and drawing and painting, although there is not much free time for these things right now. I also love being with my friends and shopping or just hanging out.

Q: How did you get into competitive skating initially?

A: After I asked if I could start taking figure skating lessons, I began working with my first coach, Carol Pichette. She was instrumental in getting me to where I am today and I will never forget that. She taught me to persevere and be tough. I haven’t looked back since.

Q: What do you most like about attending competitions?

A: I love to travel. We have been able to see many parts of the country because of where my competitions have been held. One year, junior nationals was held in Salt Lake City, and in 2012 nationals was in San Jose, Calif. Our next adventure will occur in November at Eastern Sectionals in Wake Forest, N.C. We have never been there before, so it should be exciting. Also, through competing, I’ve had the chance to make some good skating friends from different areas of the country.

At the recent New England Regional Figure Skating Championships Morgan Sewall of Scarborough claimed the silver medal in the senior ladies division, which qualified her to compete in the upcoming U.S. Eastern Sectional Championships.  

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