Burlington Figure Skater to Represent the Area Internationally with Lexettes

The ice skate blades made a crisp whoosh as they sliced across the ice and her purple skirt fluttered behind her. Burlington High School junior Lily Mansfield and her 15 teammates glided across the arena in unison, their smooth motions creating a beautifully flowing visual.

The Ice Mates, Mansfield’s synchronized skating team, placed second in the Novice Free Skate 2025 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championship on March 1, earning a 99.25 score, according to the U.S. figure skating website.

Mansfield is moving up to the junior-level team, the Lexettes, for the 2025-26 season that begins in the fall, said Elizabeth Monaco, Mansfield’s mom. The Lexettes, a synchronized skating team run by Hayden Synchronized Skating in Lexington, competes nationally and internationally at the second-highest level of figure skating, according to the company’s website. Hayden’s skaters come from around the region, and some from other states and other countries.

Mansfield’s success as a figure skater is a result not of only natural talent but of hard work, dedication and passion. 

“She wouldn’t have come this far if she didn’t just love it,” Monaco said.

Mansfield, 16, has been figure skating since she was 5, said Monaco, who has figure skating experience herself and introduced her daughter to it. Mansfield spent a year learning how to skate in California before she and her family moved to Burlington in 2014, Monaco said. 

“She was a little unsure at first, but it didn’t take very long for her to just pick it up,” Monaco said.

When she got to Burlington at the age of 6, she started skating with the Burlington Hockey and Skating Association and learned the fundamentals through completing all of its levels from first to fifth grade, Monaco said. Mansfield still skates with BHSA as a graduate of its skate program and sometimes volunteers to help teach skating lessons on Saturdays if she has the time.

Mansfield started synchronized skating in 2019 after her private coach Christina Welch recommended it, said Welch, who has been a professional skating coach since 1987 and is the head coach for the BHSA figure skating program.

Mansfield has known Welch most of her skating career. She has several additional coaches now, including Hayden’s synchronized skating coaches, and a dance coach and jump coach, who are friends with Welch, Mansfield said.

Her passion is evident not just from her smile when she’s skating but from her commitment to it, Monaco said.

“I have not seen many other kids that will voluntarily get up at 5 in the morning,” Monaco said. “She'll put a practice session at 6 a.m. on the calendar, and she won't even say anything to us, her parents.”

She has both team and individual practices and skates three to four hours a day, almost every day of the week, usually taking Sunday off as a mental break, Mansfield said.

She’s always exhibited a sense of fearlessness when learning a new skill, and if she wasn’t happy with how it turned out, she would ask why and how to make it better, Welch said. “She shows up to each lesson completely enthusiastic, ready to learn and practice what she already knows.”

Mansfield is a “lefty” skater, so she is proud to be able to do a lot of “righty” things easily because it doesn’t come naturally, she said. 

When Welch was teaching her how to stop, Welch said she noticed Mansfield had trouble stopping on her right side, the side most children would stop on. That meant she had the direction she was more comfortable with (left), but she also had to learn to do skills and skate in the opposite direction when she skated with other kids, Welch said.

“She has a stronger skill set than a typical, average skater,” Welch said.

However, figure skating is not Mansfield’s sole focus. 

Mansfield puts school first, and people sometimes describe her as a “brainiac,” she said. When she has the time, Mansfield is involved with a number of Burlington High School clubs, including the girls’ STEM program, the National Honors Society and National English Honor Society, and stage crew in this year’s musical at BHS, she said.

While she wants to continue to skate in college, Mansfield said she wants to put academics first. She hopes ice skating will be available at whatever college she attends, whether through a club or collegiate competition.

Mansfield said loves the feeling when she’s skating because it is so rich and different from the other things in her life. 

“When you’re skating, you have wind pushing on you,” Mansfield said. “You’re just free on the ice.”

This story is part of a partnership between Burlington Buzz and the Boston University Department of Journalism.