DUE TO ICY WEATHER AND HAZARDOUS ROADS
Jacksonville Gymnastics is in its seventh year of competing in USAG Junior Olympic Competitive Meets and this weekend was the first time ever for most of the team members to miss a scheduled meet.
Flame Gymnastics held a combined men and women’s USAG Junior Olympic Competitive Meet at the Fort Smith Civic Center with over 700 gymnasts registered in the meet. However, weather played havoc and some teams, and especially teams from the central Arkansas area, could not attend any part of the three-day session. Jacksonville Gymnastics, at least, made a showing in each session with 30 of the team’s 84 gymnasts attending. And as it turned out, Jacksonville had enough gymnasts for each level and session to still compete for team scores. Most, but not all of the gymnasts who competed from Jacksonville, traveled on Friday and beat the storm to Fort Smith. The Jacksonville men’s team was to compete in this meet, also, but they, too, were unable to travel on Saturday.
In spite of the icy weather, the meet was not cancelled and some teams from Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas had full attendance. One of the highlights of the meet was when the Level Six girls were competing on all four events, as usual, with the music going strong for the floor exercises, and at the same time the boys, Levels Five through Ten, were competing on their six events – ten events in the same large area at once and each very different and exciting.
The first session of the meet was held Friday night for 26 Level Eight gymnasts plus 48 registered gymnasts from six Level Five teams – however, one team of ten did not make it. Three of the six Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Eight team members competed and won Fourth-Place Team Trophy. Competing for the Level Eight team were Kayla Edgin, Taylor Rai’ Johnson and Sarah McAlister. Sarah tied for third place Individual All-Around for fourteen-year-old gymnasts but the other gymnast was awarded third place because she had a higher event score. When a tie occurs on a single event, the tie is won by the gymnast who has the highest all-around score, but when a tie for all-around occurs, it is won by the gymnast who receives the highest event score.
Friday night was the first time for Jacksonville Gymnastics to compete against “Victory Gymnastics” a team from Oklahoma City. This team took First Place in every session in which they competed, Levels Four, Five, Six and Eight and top all-around honors in most. They also competed Levels Nine and Ten plus Men’s team but those scores and winners are unknown.
The first session Saturday morning was for the remaining 107 registered Level Five teams, representing twelve teams. However, at least two teams for a total of 19 gymnasts, plus other gymnasts from other teams, did not make the meet. Twelve of the fourteen Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Five team did compete. It was the only session that most of the team gymnasts competed and that was because they traveled on Friday night before the bad weather arrived. Jacksonville won the Third-Place Team Trophy and Kaitlin Soderlund, for age ten, and Stephanie Scroggins for age twelve, won Second-Place Individual All-Around honors; Carol Walters won Third-Place All-Around for age 13.
Thirteen teams with 68 gymnasts competed in the noontime Level Six Session. Three of the nine Jacksonville Level Six gymnasts competed and proudly won the Third-Place Team Trophy. The three gymnasts were Haley Edgin, April Pitts and Tori Spears. Haley won First-Place All-Around for age eight, Tori won Third-Place All-Around for age eleven and April won Fifth-Place All-Around for age twelve, plus she won First in Bars for her age division.
Thirteen teams had 70 Level Seven, Nine and Ten gymnasts registered to compete in the Saturday night sessions. Only four of the twelve Jacksonville Level Seven gymnasts competed but most of the other teams were able to compete their entire team. The four gymnasts, Courtney Ellis, Kierra Daniel, Sissy Ghormley and Rene’e LaFort won the Fourth-Place Team Trophy and Courtney won First-Place All-Around for age ten.
By Sunday morning, the Level Four team that started out with only two gymnasts Friday night had climbed to eight of the twenty-eight team members. The session that originally had 105 gymnasts registered ended up with only 32 gymnasts competing. The eight Jacksonville gymnasts proudly won Second-Place Team Trophy, losing to the Victory Team from Oklahoma City. The eight gymnasts were: Tonie Butler, Taylor Butler, Kennedy Driskill, Mackenzie Ellis, Ashley Harmon, Bailea Jones, Kendra Lytch and Madi Spears, all under eight years old except one. Tonie and Kennedy had competed Level Three this year and were competing at Level Four for the first time. Tonie, who just turned six, won First-Place All-Around for that age and Kennedy won Second Place All-Around for age ten. Mackenzie Ellis won Third-Place All-Around for age seven and Kendra Lytch, won Second-Place All-Around for age eight, with a 37.3, just one-tenth under the first-place gymnast from Victory.
The Jacksonville Team, Levels Four, Five, Six, Seven and Eight, will compete next weekend in Springdale at a meet hosted by Durham’s. The meet season is quickly coming to a close and it won’t be long until the teams will be going to the State Meet for their Level.
Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Competitive Team Competed at Flame Gymnastics Academy 2006 Co-Ed Invitational – held at new Fort Smith Civic Center this weekend.
Only 30 gymnasts of the 84-member Team were able to compete during this Icy Weekend. These three members of the Level Eight team who did compete and won the Fourth-Place Team Trophy, from left to right are Taylor Rai’ Johnson, Sarah McAlister and Kayla Edgin.
These Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Five Team members won the Third-Place Team Trophy at Fort Smith Saturday. This was the only level of the team that had most of its members at the meet to compete – all other levels of the team were effected by the ice.
Shown here from left to right, first row, are Lauren McKibben, Samantha Sobba, Terra Johnson, Kaitlin Soderlund and Jessica McDonough. Second row gymnasts are Tiffany Maxwell, Carol Walters, Stephanie Singleton, Kelsy Founds, Caitlyn Dillon, Stephanie Scroggins and Cami Wright.
Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Six Members who were able to attend the Fort Smith meet, proudly won the Third-Place Team Trophy. These team members arrived at the meet on Friday night ahead of the ice storm. From left to right are Tori Spears, Haley Edgin and April Pitts.
These four gymnasts represented the twelve-member Level Seven Team at the weekend meet and won Fourth-Place Trophy for their Team. The meet proved to be a challenge to the reduced ranks but each gymnast felt that she needed to uphold her team’s reputation and all had fun competing for their team members, all levels. These gymnasts from left to right are Rene’e LaFort, Kierra Daniel, Courtney Ellis and Sissy Ghormley.
Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Four Members won the Second-Place Team Trophy Sunday morning at the Fort Smith Civic Center. This was the first Level Four meet for six-year-old Tonie and ten-year-old Kennedy. They both won individual all-around honors. The usual 28-member team was represented by these eight gymnasts who are, from left to right, first row, Tonie Butler, Madi Spears, Mackenzie Ellis and Kendra Lytch. Back row gymnasts are Taylor Butler, Kennedy Driskell, Bailea Jones and Ashley Harmon.
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