Seton Hill University students Justin Morrow, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Katie Wyble, of Export, Pa., hope to win at the 2010 United States Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash., January 21-23, 2010, and become one of the three ice dancing couples representing Team USA at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

“I cannot even express how exciting it will be if we win one of the three spots. Going to the Olympics will be such an amazing opportunity. It feels great to be where we are now,” said Morrow, who has been skating with Wyble for the last three years.

Morrow and Wyble, who are coached by Glenn Ziehnert of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., qualified for the United States Figure Skating Championships when they placed second at the Eastern Sectional Figure Skating Championship in Newark, Del., in November 2009.

Morrow and Wyble met by competing against one another.

“One year, neither one of us had a partner. We were able to meet and soon became a team,” said Wyble, who noted that the couple’s connection on the ice and with the audience is what sets them apart from their competitors.

“We like to give the audience a good feeling when we perform and we want them to be involved emotionally. We also hope to inspire young skaters and encourage them to keep working hard. Dreams do come full circle,” said Morrow, a two-time veteran of the United States Figure Skating Championships in ice dancing.

Morrow, a senior at Seton Hill University studying history and education, has been skating since he was seven years old. Wyble, who has been skating since she was five years old, is a freshman at the University with a double major in family and consumer science and math secondary education.

“Yes, Justin influenced my decision to go to Seton Hill. When I visited him, I got to see the campus and fell in love with it,” said Wyble. “He was already studying at Seton Hill when I was looking into college. It made sense geographically that we attend the same college. Also, Seton Hill was one of the few schools that offered exactly what I wanted to study.”

Both Morrow and Wyble have teaching and coaching plans for the future. Morrow plans to teach history to middle school or high school students while Wyble hopes to teach math or home economics to high school students. Both want to coach youth beginning their skating careers.