JACKSONVILLE GYMNASTICS TEAMS
ATTEND PEPSI CHALLENGE
Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Junior Olympic Competitive Teams attended a three-day meet hosted by Hot Springs Gymnastics at Ouachita Baptist University at Arkadelphia. Over 325 female gymnasts, Levels Two through Nine, representing 20 teams from Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Arkansas, attended this third annual Pepsi Challenge. The meet began Friday afternoon and ended late Sunday afternoon. The Jacksonville Team won the first or second-place team banner awards for each level of the meet. A men’s session was also held for Levels Four through Eight and was attended by gymnasts from Jacksonville and Shreveport.
Team awards for each level are awarded for the top teams at the end of the awards ceremony at each session. This team score for the Level is taken from the top three scores, all ages, on each of the four events. After the awards are announced for same age gymnasts on each of the four events, i.e., vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise, individual all-around awards (determined by total event scores) are announced. A gymnast competes for the team but she also competes against same age gymnasts for each of the four events and also for all-around, thus each gymnast is competing against similar age gymnasts.
Sixty-eight gymnasts from nine teams competed in the Friday evening session. The 19 Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Three gymnasts, (ages six through ten,) won the First-Place Team Award with a score of 112 points. There were so many seven-year-old gymnasts, that the age bracket had to be divided into two flights—A and B. Additionally, the following Jacksonville gymnasts won top individual all-around awards for their age in the Level Three Session.
Age 7, Flight A Abby Houghtaling First Place
Age 7, Flight A Lakyn Powers Second Place
Age 7, Flight B Sarah Beavers First Place
Age 7, Flight B Sierra Rohauer Second Place
Age 8 Kayla McGee First Place
Age 8 Regan Campbell Second Place
Age 9 Katy Gorden First Place
Age 9 Briyana Isaac Second Place
Sixty Level Four gymnasts from ten teams began competing Saturday morning at 8:00. Again, several age brackets had to be broken down into Flights A and B. Jacksonville Gymnastics competed 20 gymnasts, ages seven to twelve, and won the Second-Place Team Banner. Winning top Level Four individual all-around awards for their age were:
Age 7 Tonie Butler First Place
Age 8 Lynzie VanBrocklin Second Place
Age 9, Flight A Rachel Flippen First Place
Age 9, FlightA Alex Taylor Third Place - Sorry, Alex, for missing you
Age 9, Flight B Hannah Taylor Third Place
Age 10, Flight A Savannah Wade First Place
Age 10, Flight A Sabrina Barger Third Place
Age 11, Flight B Kennedy Driskill Second Place
Age 12 and Up Nidhi Gandhi Third Place
Sixty Level Five gymnasts from ten teams and 31 Level Six gymnasts from ten teams competed in a combined session Saturday afternoon. The Jacksonville Level Five Team competed twelve gymnasts and won the Second Place Team Banner, only two tenths of a point behind a Shreveport team. The Jacksonville Level Five gymnasts also won the following Individual All-Around Awards for each age bracket.
Age 7 – 8 Mackenzie Ellis Second Place
Age 9 Taylor Butler Second Place
Age 9 Kendra Lytch Third Place
Age 12 Stephanie Singleton First Place
Age 13 & Up Madison Winstead First Place
Age 13 & Up Carol Walters Second Place
Seven gymnasts of the Jacksonville Level Six team also competed in the afternoon session and won the Second Place Team Banner, losing First by nine tenths of a point to the same Shreveport team. The Jacksonville gymnasts won the following top Individual All-Around Awards for Level Six, including the top four places for age 11 – 12.
Age 11 – 12 Tori Spears First Place
Age 11 – 12 Kimmie Edwards Second Place
Age 11 – 12 Kelsy Founds Third Place
Age 11 – 12 Jessica McDonough Fourth Place
Age 13 & Up Caitlyn Dillon Third Place
Since a cheerleading competition was held Saturday evening, team competitions for the boys and Levels Seven and Eight for the girls were held on Sunday.
Forty gymnasts from eleven Level Seven teams competed Sunday morning at 9:00. The eight Level Seven gymnasts from Jacksonville won the First Place Team Banner (over the same Shreveport team). The following home team gymnasts also won the following Individual All-Around Awards.
Age 10 – 11 Mackenzie Powers Second Place
Age 12 Tori Hanley Second Place
Age 14 & Up Missy Whittecar Third Place
Eighteen Level Eight gymnasts from six teams and seven Level Nine gymnasts from three teams competed at the Sunday afternoon session. Jacksonville’s five Level Eight gymnasts won the Second Place Team Banner (the Shreveport Team, again – by just one point). The Jacksonville team won the following Level Eight Individual All-Around Awards.
Age 12 – 13 Kayla Edgin Third Place
Age 12 – 13 Taylor Rai Johnson Fourth Place –one-tenth point under 3d
Age 14 & Up Kelsey Lerner First Place (37.225)
The four gymnasts of the Jacksonville Men’s Team competed early Sunday morning at 8:00. The Jacksonville Team won the Second Place Level Five Team Banner (competing against the Shreveport team of 21 gymnasts). Six events are competed in men’s gymnastics – the floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar. The Jacksonville male gymnasts won the following top individual all-around awards.
Age 9 Jonathan Hand Second Place (Level Four)
Age 11 Michael York Second Place (Level Five)
Ten-year-old John Taylor and nine-year-old Christopher Leirer competed in the nine-ten year-old category, Level Five, and won fifth and sixth place all-around honors. The four Jacksonville team members will compete next Saturday at Champion’s Gym in Jonesboro.
The Jacksonville Women’s Team will next compete in early January at the annual Yankee Doodle Dandy Meet to be held at the Pine Bluff Convention Center and sponsored by Flip Flop Gymnastics of Pine Bluff.
These excited Jacksonville Level Three Competitive Team gymnasts had just won the First-Place Team Banner at the Pepsi Challenge, held this past weekend. These gymnasts are competing in their first season and have already won highest Level Three team scores in three meets. Pictured from left to right, first row are: Hali Wilder, Sierra Rohauer, Miranda Chambers, Sydney Hughes, Sara Heil, Natalie Donley, Mattie Taylor, Abby Houghtaling, Lakyn Powers and Sarah Beavers. Second row, left to right, are Lainey Necessary, Kayla Gregory, Kayla McGee, Katy Gorden, Sarah Siebel, and Regan Campbell. Back Row, left to right, are Briyana Isaac, Victoria Maness, Lauren Foster and Coach Christy Ellis. Coach Stacy Howerton is not shown here as she was taking care of team matters at the time of the photo.
Although they would rather win the first place team award, these Level Four gymnasts from the Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Junior Olympic Team are happy to just be competing for the love of the sport. They did win the Second-Place Team Banner at the Pepsi Challenge meet held at Ouachita Baptist University at Arkadelphia this past weekend. Pictured from left to right are: Jadyn Perkins, Sydney McGill, Maggie Lee, Sabrina Barger, Katherine Taylor, Savannah Wade, Alex Taylor, Rachel Flippen, Jordan Rogers, Tonie Butler, Anja Tech, Kaylen Perkins, Madi Spears, Hannah Taylor, Kennedy Driskill, Jessica Gardner, Lynzie VanBrocklin, Nidhi Gandi and Lauren Anderson. Not shown, but also competing was Katie Trujillo.
The Level Five Team Members of Jacksonville Gymnastics proudly display their Second- Place Banner. They had just missed winning First Place by two-tenths of one point. They were very proud of themselves, as were the many parents and families who had traveled to Arkadelphia to watch the teams compete. Pictured seated from left to right are Marisa Grissom, Bailey Mitchell Jones, Mackenzie Ellis, Taylor Butler and Kendra Lytch. Back row standing, left to right, are Amanda Hicks, Tiffany Maxwell, Stephanie Singleton, Carol Walters, Madison Winstead, Terionna Stewart and Allison Storeygard.
Also proudly displaying their Second-Place Team Banner, from left to right, are the following Level Six gymnasts: Tori Spears, Kelsy Founds, Caitlyn Dillon, Kimmie Edwards, Samanatha Sobba, Jessica McDonough and Cassidy Eberle. The gymnasts had competed very hard and just missed first place by less than one point. This was the third year for some of these gymnasts to attend the Pepsi Challenge.
These Level Seven Gymnasts are shown here with their First Place Banner that they had just won at the Pepsi Challenge. These gymnasts are among the ones who proudly compete with Jacksonville Gymnastics and travel long distances daily from all other areas in central Arkansas, including the Bryant-Alexander area, Maumelle, Sherwood, Jacksonville and Searcy. Other gymnasts on the team are from North Little Rock, Ward, Beebe and Lonoke. From left to right, these Level Seven Gymnasts are April Pitts, Haley Edgin, Krista Carlisle, Tori Hanley, Alyson Ferren, Mackenzie Powers, Missy Whittecar and Samantha Gray.
The skills competed at Level Eight are very difficult and these Jacksonville gymnasts competed them very well at the Pepsi Challenge. Shown here with their Second Place Team Banner from left to right are Courtney Ellis, Kayla Edgin, Kelsey Lerner, Sissy Ghormley and Taylor Rai Johnson.
Posing before their competition at the Pepsi Challenge, from left to right, were Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Five Team Members, Michael York, Christopher Leirer and John Taylor. Jonathan Hand, on the right is a Level Four team member. Team scores are usually taken from the three highest all-around scores, (although sometimes the top five scores are used for awards). The Jacksonville Level Five Team won the Second Place Team Award for the competition. Shown here with the boys is Coach Kenneth Leirer.
Shown here with these beautiful smiles are Ms. Michelle and Ms. Amy, two of the many staff members from Hot Spring Gymnastics, who sponsored the Pepsi Challenge Meet. If you realize how difficult it is to host a really good meet (like Hot Springs did), then you may wonder how they could manage such smiles and friendliness. We would like to thank them and the rest of staff at Hot Springs Gymnastics for their warm hospitality and the many kindnesses extended to us during our three days with them. Ms. Michelle did the computer work (and we especially thank you for the printouts) and Ms. Amy is the head team coach and was Director of the Meet. Thanks to all of you for a great job and making us all feel so welcome.