The Region Three Level Eight Gymnastics Competition was held this weekend, April 26-27, with 268 top competing gymnasts--representing 104 teams--from the seven states of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming and Arkansas. The gymnasts were from age eight to over fifteen years of age. The Competition was held in the Plano Centre, Plano, Texas and was hosted by Metroplex Gymnastics. The competition began at 8:00 a.m. Saturday and ended Sunday evening at 6:30.
USAG determines the number of gymnasts who are eligible to represent each state – this number is 50 percent of the total number of Level Eight gymnasts in each age bracket in each state. Certain states will have more gymnasts qualified for the meet than others; those states having the larger number of gymnasts have more gymnasts at the competition. Breakdown of qualifying gymnasts and teams, by state, is as follows:
Arkansas 16 gymnasts from 5 teams
Colorado 61 gymnasts from 21 teams
Kansas 21 gymnasts from 10 teams
New Mexico 11 gymnasts from 6 teams
Oklahoma 35 gymnasts from 11 teams
Texas 118 gymnasts from 49 teams
Wyoming 6 gymnasts from 2 teams
Since medals were awarded to only the top third of each session, placements usually went out to about fifteen to nineteen places with only nine places awarded for the eight-to-ten-year-old gymnasts.
The sixteen gymnasts from Arkansas were chosen and announced at the culmination of the State Meet held March 29th at the Pine Bluff Convention Center. After the State Meet scores were compiled and awarded, the announcement of those qualified for the Regional competition was made, amidst much excitement. No one really knows who those gymnasts are until the actual announcement is made because the choice could be determined by even .005 of a point.
Of the 16 top Arkansas Gymnasts, all five Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Eight gymnasts earned their spot for the Regional Competition. These gymnasts, by age, were ten-year-old Haley Edgin--the youngest Level Eight gymnast in Arkansas--competing in the eight-to-ten-year age bracket; Courtney Ellis competing in the twelve-year-old bracket; Tori Hanley competing in the thirteen-year-old bracket; Taylor Rai Johnson competing in the fourteen-year-old bracket; and Sarah McAlister competing in the age fifteen-and-above bracket.
The first session at the competition that began at 8:00 a.m. Saturday was for eleven-year-old gymnasts. There were 47 gymnasts from 35 teams with two being from two Arkansas teams. Jax Gym had no eleven-year-old Level Eight gymnasts.
Courtney Ellis
Competing at the second session--which began at noon—were 46 age-twelve gymnasts from 36 teams, including Courtney Ellis from Jacksonville Gymnastics. Courtney--the Arkansas Level Eight State Champion for her age bracket—did very well and scored almost the same as she had at the Arkansas State Meet.
Courtney - on beam at earlier meet. Photo by Lois
(Courtney, of course, is not this tall - photo is distorted from being on website in several places - will try to remember to replace soon.)
Tori Hanley
Competing in the evening session were 51 thirteen-year-old gymnasts from 34 teams, including five AR gymnasts from three teams. Tori Hanley competed in this session for Jacksonville Gymnastics and also did very well, scoring just .05 less than her 37.0 earned at State Meet.
Tori Hanley at earlier meet at Pine Bluff. Photo by Lois
Sarah McAlister
Sara at 2008 Level Eight Regional Competition - after competition.
Sara at Yankee Doodle Meet at Pine Bluff - early January 2008. Photo by Lois
Competing in the early 8:00 a.m. session on Sunday were 55 gymnasts from 40 teams, including four Arkansas fifteen-year-old-and-above gymnasts from three teams. Competing in the session for Jacksonville Gymnastics was sixteen-year-old Sarah McAlister. Sara placed Fifth on the Vault with a 9.475. During this season, Sarah had won First-Place Individual All-Around Honors at each meet in which she competed – including the Texas Meet and the Louisiana meet that the team had attended, and she was the Arkansas Level Eight State Champion for fifteen-year-old and above gymnasts.
In the last session of the meet were 43 age fourteen gymnasts from 37 teams and 26 eight-to-ten-year-old gymnasts from 16 teams. Arkansas had two fourteen year-old gymnasts in this session, including Taylor Rai Johnson from Jacksonville Gymnasts. Included in the eight-to-ten-year-old competing gymnasts was Arkansas’ only Level Eight gymnast in this age category—Haley Edgin from Jacksonville Gymnastics.
Taylor Rai Johnson
Taylor Rai Johnson placed 11th on vault with a score of 9.475. Taylor Rai had won Second-Place State Championship in March.
Taylor Rai on beam (off beam) at earlier competition. Photo by Lois
Haley was unable to compete when above actions shots were taken.
Haley's Regional Meet Photo
Haley Edgin had a foot injury after the first meet of the season and was unable to compete the entire season until State Meet, where she was the State Champion for her age bracket. She earned a 37.350 at Regionals with having the ability to only practice for about five weeks. (Please note the little girl in the background, practicing her gymnastics poses - she had just run up and hugged Taylor Rai and then ran over to hug Haley!!!) (Also, please note the muscle formation on Haley!)
A note of interest in this age bracket of eight-to-ten-year-old gymnasts – Arkansas had only one gymnast; Colorado had five from five teams; Kansas had no gymnasts in this age; New Mexico had no gymnasts in this age; Oklahoma had one gymnast; and Wyoming had no gymnasts of this age. Texas, however, had 26 gymnasts in this age bracket from nine teams. This will give a hint as to what is happening in Texas – they are getting their young gymnasts to a higher level at a much faster rate than the other six states. This will also give Texas a greater chance of having more champions as these gymnasts get older. Of the top nine placements for this age bracket, eight were from Texas with fifth place going to the Colorado gymnast.
Jacksonville Gymnastics team members have only been able to go to Regionals for a few years, and each year the team gains more experience. And this year, we had our first Level Nine Gymnast - Kayla Edgin - go to Level Nine Regional Competition - more on that later. We are very proud of all of our gymnasts – the team had a great season! A summary of the year will hopefully be reported soon.
Shown here after State Meet Awards and Announcement of Regional Competitors, are the happy faces of our Level Eight gymnasts. From left to right are Sarah, Haley, Courtney, Tori and Taylor Rai. I just realized that Haley didn't have her medals on - she was awarded five gold medals.
This is Level Nine Gymnast Kayla Edgin. The photo was taken by Ms. Lois at the Flip Flop Gymnastics Meet in
January. It's easy to see why Kayla is a Level Nine!!!!!!
Kayla - taken at the State Meet at Pine Bluff Convention Center end of March, 2008.
Kayla - at Level Nine Regional Three Competition - Click Here for Level Nine-Ten Regionals.