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GREENSBORO — Before her appearance in the junior ladies U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Haley Dunne posted an update on Twitter.

"Short program this afternoon! Bringing out the "Haley Gaga" in me," she wrote Wednesday.

Dunne (say it like "done") sailed through her program, but finished 12th of 13 skaters after falling during a triple flip.

But the 16-year-old with North Carolina connections kept high spirits and hopes to be back in Greensboro for the 2011 championships.

"It would be definitely be more motivation and it would be a more comfortable feeling," she said Wednesday evening. "I basically grew up in Greensboro."

From age six to 13 her family drove her from Raleigh for coaching sessions with John Carlow and several-times-a-week practice sessions at the Greensboro Ice House.

After Carlow retired, she took a new coach and moved to Alexandria, Va.

Her climb to what could become an impressive career in figure skating is underway.

"When I came to Greensboro in 2001, Haley was just a little kid a that time, and she already had her double lutz," said Nicole Stalker, skating director at The Ice House.

Dunne kept developing as a skater through sessions that ran several times a week at The Ice House. She finished fifth among junior ladies in the 2009 Eastern Sectional Championships, and third among junior ladies in the recent 2010 Eastern Sectionals.

The third-place finish qualified her for the nationals in Spokane, and she'll skate the long program today.

"I'm not one of the top skaters, placement-wise, so I don't have as much pressure on me to skate well," she said, taking a bright-side-of-things perspective. "I can just go out there and do my thing and have fun."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com