Jacksonville Gymnastics USAG Junior Olympic Competitive Team recently competed at the Louisiana Cup Invitational that was hosted by AcroSports Gymnastics and held in the Gold Dome, Centenary College, at Shreveport, Louisiana. This was the fifth year for the team to compete at this meet. Almost 500 gymnasts, Levels Two through Ten, from 26 Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas teams attended this meet, which actually began Friday with 100 Level Two and Three gymnasts competing during the day. Many of the gymnasts and their families attended the college meet Friday night at the Gold Dome and enjoyed watching gymnastics on that level. Many of the gymnasts aspire toward competing gymnastics at the collegiate level on scholarships earned through their sport.
Although the hometown team was well represented, Jacksonville Gymnastics had fewer gymnasts competing at this meet than usual, due to the distance and due to the illness of several of the gymnasts. Also, the Level Three gymnasts were not entered because of the difficulty in meeting the Friday daytime schedule. But the 39 Jacksonville Gymnastics team members who did compete well represented the entire team, and the team brought home team banners and several individual all-around honors.
In Arkansas meets, team scores are figured in a way so that each team member of the competing level might contribute to the score, as the top three or possibly five scores for each of the four events are taken. In this way, each and every team member might possibly contribute to the score. Team scores are figured in a different way at the Louisiana Invitational and it limits the team to three out of four scores that might not turn out to be the highest scores for the team. Also, different ages within the same level competed at different sessions, so the team members did not always have the usual important support of all of their team members. Individual awards were presented at the end of each session, but since Level Four and Level Five were divided into age groups, team awards for each level were not presented until after both sessions for the level had competed, so not all team members were necessarily available for the awards. USAG regulates how many gymnasts may compete in a single session and different hosts handle the situation in different ways. This meet host chose to have each team represented at each session, whereas other hosts have different teams compete at different times in order to achieve the desired number of gymnasts for each session.
Early Saturday morning, 60 Level Five gymnasts, representing fifteen teams, began the competition. Eight of the Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Five gymnasts, age nine to fourteen, competed at this session. Mackenzie Ellis, age eight, the youngest Level Five gymnast, competed at the next session. The team won the Fifth-Place Team Banner. Stephanie Singleton, age twelve, won First-Place All-Around, one of two of our gymnasts to achieve this award at this meet.
Level Five Gymnasts who competed in the Louisiana Invitational Cup and won the Fifth-Place Team Banner are shown here front row, Kendra Lytch and Bailea Jones. Second and Third row, from left to right are Stephanie Singleton, Madison Winstead, Mackenzie Ellis, Amanda Hicks, Terionna Stewart, Allison Storeygard and Carol Walters. Great going, gymnasts!!!! Stephanie won First-Place Individual All-Around for age twelve, Level Five. This photo was taken after the large group had competed and before Mackenzie had competed, so we could get everyone at once.
Stephanie stayed over for another session so she could help Mackenzie receive the Fifth Place Team Banner for the Level Five Team. Thanks girls, we appreciate it.
During the next session, 27 Level Five gymnasts, (including Mackenzie) representing 13 teams, competed at the same time that the 36 Level Six gymnasts from 11 teams competed. Only five of the eight Jacksonville Level Six team members were able to compete but they did very well and won the Third-Place Team Banner.
Proudly displaying the Third-Place Team Banner that they had just won were the five Level Six gymnasts who had just competed in the Louisiana Invitational - left to right, Jessica McDonough, Kimmie Edwards, Cassidy Eberle, Caitlyn Dillon and Kelsy Founds. We were just so proud of these girls. Tori Spears went to Shreveport to compete but was unable to due to illness.
Most meets usually compete three sessions during a day’s competition, but four sessions were managed on Saturday, and 71 Level Seven gymnasts representing 17 teams competed at the 3:00 session. Jacksonville Gymnastics competed eight Level Seven gymnasts and they won the Fourth-Place Team Banner. Haley Edgin, age nine, won Third-Place Individual All-Around for her age bracket and Tori Hanley, age 12, won First-Place Individual All-Around for her bracket, Level Seven.
Hey Girls - You just keep getting better!!!! Our Level Seven Team shown here won the Fourth-Place Team Banner. Shown here from left to right are Haley Edgin, Allyson Ferren, Samantha Gray, Sissy Ghormley, Krista Carlisle, Mackenzie Powers and Tori Hanley. April Pitts also competed but was unavailable for the photo. Tori won First-Place All-Around and Haley won Third-Place All-Around, for their respective age brackets.
During the last session of the day, 44 Level Eight gymnasts, representing 16 teams; 23 Level Nine gymnasts, representing six teams; and six Level Ten gymnasts, representing six teams, competed and made for a fun-filled and exciting session. Jacksonville Gymnastics competed three of their six Level Eight gymnasts. Again, the three gymnasts competed their difficult skills against very tough competition and even raised their team score by 1.6 over their last meet.
Gymnastics is such a great sport and so much fun and you three embody the sport!! Congratulations, Girls!!!! Taylor Rai Johnson, Courtney Ellis and Kayla Edgin are shown here after competing in the Level Eight-Nine and Ten session at the Louisiana Invitational.
On Sunday, 126 Level Four competitors, representing 26 teams, competed in two different sessions. Fourteen gymnasts from the 24-member Level Four Jacksonville Gymnastics competitive team, although split into two sessions, won the Fourth-Place Team Banner (out of 26 teams!) Ten-year-old Savannah Wade won the Second-Place Individual All-Around for her age bracket. Jordan Rogers, age seven, received Fifth-Place All-Around and deserves special recognition for her score of 36.55.
We wanted a group photo so this picture of the competing Level Four Gymnasts was taken after the eight and nine-year-old gymnasts had competed and before the seven-year-olds and ten and eleven-year-olds had competed. Twenty-six Level Four Teams were represented in the two sessions and Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Four team won the Fourth-Place Team Banner. Shown here front row, from left to right are Lynzie VanBrocklin, Jadyn Perkins, Madi Spears, Jordan Rogers, Savannah Wade, Sydney McGill and Katie Trujillo. Back row, also left to right are Kaylen Perkins, Kennedy Driskill, Hannah Taylor, Jessica Gardner, Anja Tech, Lauren Anderson and Alex Taylor. Congratulations, Gymnasts!
Tired but happy after the second session, these Level Four gymnasts, with Madi joining them, pose and giggle either for me or at me!!!!
This meet was large and the teams from the Houston and Dallas areas and Louisiana are really tough competitors, but Jacksonville Gymnastics members were undaunted by the competition. Jacksonville Gymnastics will host its own seventh Annual Sweetheart Invitational February 16-17-18 at the Jacksonville High School and this meet will host even more gymnasts than were at the Shreveport meet. The public is invited to attend.