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2008 Jacksonville Gymnastics Sweetheart Invitational Meet
February 15 – 16 - 17 – What a Weekend!!!!
If you are a gymnast, we hope that you are exhilarated about the weekend – and if you are a coach or a parent, we know that you are exhausted!!! We certainly hope that the other team gymnasts and parents enjoyed the Eighth Annual Sweetheart Invitational as much as we at Jacksonville Gymnastics.
The three-day meet was held in the Cabot High School Gymnasium and the gymnasts were fortunate to have a second gym 30 steps away to use as a complete warm-up area. Over 500 gymnasts, from 22 Arkansas teams and one Mississippi team, competed in the three-day, six-session meet. Competing gymnasts were from Levels Two through Ten and ranged in age from five to seventeen years.
Competing Arkansas teams--from as far away as Springdale to Camden, and Hope to West Memphis--were Airbound Gymnastics, Cabot Gymnastics, Delta Gymnastics Center, Champions Gymnastics Center, Didion Gymnastics, Durham’s Gymnastics, Flip Flop Gymnastics, Flip Over Gymnastics, Great Expectations, Gym Stars Gymnastics, Gymnastics Plus, Hot Springs Gymnastics, Mega Gymnastics, North Little Rock Gymnastics, River City Gymnastics, Russellville Gym Twisters, Southwest Arkansas Gymnastics Academy, Sonshine Academy, Stars and Stripes Gymnastics Center, Tena’s Gymnastics, Westside YMCA Gymnastics, and Jacksonville Gymnastics. Competing from Tupelo Mississippi was Elite II Gymnastics.
As many gymnastics enthusiasts know, there are four areas that are competed in the meet – vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise, (which is performed to music on the large spring floor.) To figure each individual all-around placement, the total of each of the four scores is added together to give the All-Around score for the gymnast. Each gymnast competes against only those of her own age and a score of up to a 10.0 can attained. For awards, each event is announced for all the same-age gymnasts, starting with vault. After the four event awards are announced (for each gymnast of the same age) the all-around awards--from lowest to highest for that age gymnasts--are announced by name of gymnast and the team that they are representing. The actual scores for the first-place event and first-place individual all-around honors are the only actual scores announced.
After all age brackets for the competing level are awarded, the team awards are announced for that session.
To figure team scores, the highest three scores (or five, depending on the meet) are totaled from the team’s entire level, no matter the age, for each event. Then the totals for each event are added together to get the team score. Counting three tens as highest for each event, a perfect score for a team level would be 120 points. Top scores for this meet ranged from 111 to 117 points.
In addition to team trophies, each gymnast was awarded five medals, one for each event, plus her individual all-around medal. The gymnasts had already received their individual gifts of a grip bag and special drink container. Also, at the Sweetheart meet, a very special trophy is awarded to the gymnast who attains the highest all-around score for the session.
Jacksonville Gymnasts certainly brought their best game to the Cabot High School Gymnasium – all levels but one exceeded their previous scores by good margins, so it was an exceptional weekend.
In the order of their competitive sessions, Jacksonville Gymnastics won the following:
Level Four Friday Night First Place
Level Five Saturday Morning First Place
Level Six Saturday Noon First Place
Level Seven Saturday Night First Place
Level Eight Saturday Night First Place
Level Nine Saturday Night Second Place Individual All- Around, (missing First by ONLY .05 of a point)
Level Three Sunday Noon Second Place
Coaches and gymnasts – you cannot possibly know how proud
we are of you.!!!!!
Over 80 Level Four gymnasts from ten teams competed in the Friday night session, including nineteen of the Jacksonville Level Four gymnasts. The gymnasts in this session ranged in age from six to twelve years and up. Competing for Jacksonville were Sydney Baggerly, Sarah Beavers, Miranda Chambers, Natalie Donley, Jessica Gardner, Sara Heil, Abby Houghtaling, Ashley Hudson, Briyana Isaac, Maggie Lee, Sydney McClung, Sydney McGill, Jadyn Perkins, Lakyn Powers, Allison Ramsey, Sierra Rohauer, Sarah Seibel, Skylar Spaeth and Mattie Taylor.
In addition to winning the First-Place Team Award, winning top individual all-around honors for Jacksonville Gymnastics were:
Allison Ramsey, age seven, won Third-Place Individual All-Around.
Out of 28 eight-year-old gymnasts, Abby Houghtaling won First Place All-Around and Sydney McGill won Second Place.
Ten-year-old Maggie Lee won Third-Place All-Around.
Out of 30 nine-year-old gymnasts, Sierra Rohauer won Third-Place All-Around and made team history. A perfect score of 10.0 is very difficult to achieve and Sierra was the first Jacksonville team member to achieve a perfect ten, which she received on vault. Also, every team member on the Jacksonville team received a score of nine-plus on vault, with scores ranging from 9.150 to 9.4, 9.6, 9.7, plus several 9.8’s and 9.9’s, (top three scores 9.9, 9.9 and 10.0) for vault score of 29.8, just .2 short of that perfect 30 points.
Receiving the highest score of the entire 80 gymnasts for the evening session was Jacksonville Gymnast, eight-year-old Abby Houghtaling with a score of 38.3. She received a 9.8 on vault, a 9.4 on bars, a 9.45 on beam and 9.65 on floor.
Just look at the smiles on the faces of these Level Four gymnasts - after winning First-Place Team Trophy - they had an incredibly good meet and I think they were as proud as the parents and grandparents. From left to right, front row, are Jessica Gardner, Ashley Hudson, Sydney McClung, Sierra Rohauer, Natalie Donley, Miranda Chambers, Sara Heil and Jadyn Perkins. Back row, left to right, are Sydney Baggerly, Lakyn Powers, Skylar Spaeth, Allison Ramsey, Sarah Seibel, Mattie Taylor, Maggie Lee, Abby Houghtaling and Briyana Isaac. Competing but not shown here were Sarah Beavers and Sydney McGill.
Competing at the early hour of 8:00 Saturday morning were 62 gymnasts from five Level Five teams and 27 Level Three gymnasts from four teams. Jacksonville did not compete its Level Three gymnasts this session but did compete fourteen of its fifteen Level Five gymnasts and the team won First Place.
Ranging in age from eight to twelve, home team competing gymnasts were Sabrina Barger, Anna Faith Camp, Kennedy Driskill, Rachel Flippen, Amanda Hicks, Halle Maddox, Katelin McLain, Bailea Mitchell-Jones, Jordan Rogers, Madi Spears, Alex Taylor, Hannah Taylor, Katherine Taylor and Lynzie VanBrocklin. Katy Gorden, the fifteenth team member, was unable to compete due to illness.
Winning top honors for the home team were:
Jordan Rogers age eight First Place
Lynzie VanBrocklin age nine Second Place
Halle Maddox age ten First Place
Anna Faith Camp age ten Third Place
Katelin McLain age eleven First Place
Amanda Hicks age twelve Third Place
These Level Five team members made it through the early hour of the meet and won First-Place Team Trophy besides - Hurray!!!!! Front row, left to right, are Amanda Hick, Kathryn Taylor, Halle Maddox, and Bailea Mitchell-Jones. Back row, left to right, are Alex Taylor, Kennedy Driskill, Anna Faith Camp, Madi Spears, Lynzie VanBrocklin, Hannah Taylor, Rachel Flippen, Jordan Rogers, Sabrina Barger and Kaitlyn McLain.
Competing in the Saturday noontime session were 42 additional Level Five gymnasts, from twelve teams, and 39 Level Six gymnasts from eleven teams, which included the seven Level Six gymnasts from the Jacksonville Team. As I have mentioned before, Level Six is a very difficult level to compete and there are not as many gymnasts who compete that level as at the lower levels.
Jacksonville Level Six Team members, who range in age from eight to fifteen, are Tonie Butler, Mackenzie Ellis, Kendra Lytch, Tiffany Maxwell, Jessica McDonough, Stephanie Singleton and Carolann Walters.
In addition to winning the First-Place Team Award, the following Individual All-Around Awards were won by the team:
Mackenzie Ellis, age nine in the eight-nine category First Place
Tonie Butler, age eight in the eight-nine category Third Place
Kendra Lytch, age ten First Place
Jessica McDonough, age twelve First Place
Stephanie Singleton, age thirteen First Place
Carolann Walters, age fifteen First Place
Additionally, Stephanie Singleton proudly won the highest all-around trophy for the session with her score of 37.2.
Shown here are the Fabulous Level Six Gymnasts! We're not going to tell them, but this was their sixth meet of the season and they just won their sixth First-Place Team Trophy. From left to right on the back row are Tiffany Maxwell, Carolann Walters, Mackenzie Ellis, Jessica McDonough and Stephanie Singleton. Down front, saluting, are Tonie Butler and Kendra Lytch. We are so proud of you girls!!!
Competing in the Saturday evening session were Optional gymnasts--Levels Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten, ranging in age from ten to sixteen years. Optionals are called that because at that level, the choice of vault skill and the routines for bars, beam and floor exercise, are optional to the coach and gymnast. Certain level requirements for each event must be included in the routine, but they are individually choreographed for each gymnast by the coach. Also, the coach or another professional person choreographs the floor routine to the music selected by both the coach and the gymnast, thus the floor routine expresses the individual personality and strengths of the gymnast. Beam Coach Erin Wunderl choreographs the beam routines. Bars Coach Laurel Spears choreographs the bar routines and the choreographs the floor routines and is assisted by other coaching staff members.
Representing eleven teams at Level Seven were 36 gymnasts, including the eight Level Seven gymnasts from Jacksonville Gymnastics. Those gymnasts are Taylor Butler, Mackenzie Powers, Samantha Sobba, Kimmee Edwards, Samantha Gray, Alyson Ferren, Kelsy Founds and Tori Spears.
Not to be outdone by the lower levels, the Level Seven Team gymnasts proudly won the First-Place Team Trophy also. And, receiving top individual all-around awards were:
Taylor Butler, age ten Second Place
Mackenzie Powers, age eleven First Place
Samantha Sobba, age eleven Third Place
Samantha Gray, age twelve First Place
Kimmee Edwards, age twelve Second Place
Alyson Ferren, age thirteen First Place
Level Seven gymnasts were just as excited about winning the First-Place Team Trophy as were the other levels. It had been several meets since all eight of the gymnasts were able to compete together and it pleased them very much to be able to support one another. Front row, left to right are Kimmee Edwards, Taylor Butler and Alyson Ferren. Left to right on back row are Kelsey Founds, Samantha Sobba, Tori Spears, Mackenzie Powers and Samantha Gray. Way to go, girls!
Also competing in the session were seventeen gymnasts who represented seven Level Eight teams, including the six Level Eight gymnasts from Jacksonville Gymnastics. However, only four of the team gymnasts competed all events and one more competed beam only. (The sixth team member will return to workouts this week after recovering from a recent injury.) Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Eight team members are Haley Edgin, Courtney Ellis, Tori Hanley, Taylor Rai Johnson, Sissy Ghormley and Sarah McAlister.
In addition to winning the First-Place Level Eight Team trophy, the gymnasts won the following top honors.
Tori Hanley, age thirteen in the twelve-thirteen age bracket First Place
Courtney Ellis, age twelve in the twelve-thirteen age bracket Second Place
Sarah McAlister, age sixteen First Place
These Level Eight gymnasts are always happy but especially so when they win the First-Place Team trophy. They spend many hours in the gym and have worked really hard to get to where they are. From left to right are Courtney Ellis, Sarah McAlister, Sissy Ghormley, Tori Hanley, Haley Edgin, and Taylor Rai Johnson.
Competing Level Nine at this session were nine gymnasts representing seven teams, including Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Nine Gymnast Kayla Edgin. There were no Level Nine team awards as it takes at least three scores to be considered team. Kayla, age fourteen, won Second-Place Individual All-Around, missing out on first place by only .05 of a point.
Kayla - you were wonderful. You have worked so hard to become what you are today - a very talented and skilled gymnast. We're so proud of you for not only that, but for your character and sportsmanship.
Hot Springs Gymnast, Taylor Mickelson, senior bracket, age 16 to 18, competed Level Ten. Taylor, you have worked very hard for years also, and even though you are from another gym, we have watched you and we're just pleased to have been able to watch you progress.
We want to again thank the parents of the lower level gymnasts who came back to the evening session to watch our optional routines. Your being in the stands and rooting for the team members means so much to them and to us. We appreciated it at the Shreveport meet and we especially appreciated it at our own meet.
Competing in the Sunday morning 9:00 o’clock session were fifteen young Level Two gymnasts from two teams, and 85 more Level Four gymnasts representing twelve teams. Jacksonville had no teams entered in this session as its Level Four team had competed on Friday night. It was quite an experience watching the young Level Two gymnasts and seeing how far they had come at such a young age and remembering back years when our gymnasts were at that age and level. Jacksonville competes Level Three as its lowest level. Even Level One gymnasts may compete in Mississippi. This is the first year for Level Two gymnasts to compete in Arkansas.
Awards for the Level Two gymnasts from Hot Springs Gymnastics and Elite II Gymnastics from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Hot
Hot Springs Level Two Gymnasts celebrate after their competition. Ms. Laurel was helping them with their team trophy - it was almost bigger than they were. We didn't have time to pose.
Elite Gymnastics Level Two Team after winning First-Place Team Trophy. I'm sorry that we didn't have time to really pose and make sure that everyone was in the picture.
Competing in the final Sunday noontime session were 78 more Level Three gymnasts representing ten teams, which included the sixteen Jacksonville Level Three competitors, who won the Second-Place Team Award. Competitors in the session ranged from age five years to twelve and up. Competing for Jacksonville Gymnastics were Sarah Balenko, Nina Carpenter, Madison Cross Engel, Keelee Curbo, Katlyn Grace, Lindsey Hart, Olivia Hodson, Deja Jackson-Snyder, Mollie Johnson, Alexandria Leirer, Jenna Mecca, Hayden Medlock, Lauren Osburn, Taylor Parker, Rachel Vire and Marissa Wallace.
Winning top honors were:
Sarah Balenko, age five First Place
Taylor Parker, age eight Second Place
Katlyn Grace, age nine Third Place
Keelee Curbo, age ten First Place
Nina Carpenter, age eleven Third Place
These are Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Three Team gymnasts. The Sweetheart Invitational Meet was their last for the season, since in Arkansas there are no State Meets for Level Three gymnasts. These gymnasts will begin working on Level Four skills and will continue to work during the summer to perfect their skills to be ready for the Mock Meet held at the gym in October. Holding the trophy are our three youngest gymnasts, six-year-old Hayden Medlock and Madison Croft Engel, and five-year-old Sarah Balenko. Back rows, left to right are Marissa Wallace, Deja Jackson-Snyder, Mollie Johnson, Alexandria Leirer, Nina Carpenter, Taylor Parker, Lauren Osburn, Lindsey Hart, Olivia Hodson, Jenna Mecca, Rachel Vire, Katlyn Grace and Keelee Curbo. Congratulations gymnasts for a very successful Level Three season - you really made Jacksonville Gymnastics Team proud.
Abby Houghtaling - Level Four - Great Job!!!
Pictured here is Abby Houghtaling, eight-year-old Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Four gymnast, who not only won First All-Around for her age bracket with a score of 38.3, she also won top All-Around score for the entire session of 80 gymnasts. Abby has been a student at Huff ‘n Puff since she was three years old and has previously won First All-Around for her age several times.
Stephanie Singleton - Level Six - Congratulations - Another Goal Reached!
Jacksonville Gymnastics awards a special recognition honor at the Sweetheart Invitational Meet that goes to the gymnast with the highest Individual All-Around score at each session. Level Six Gymnast, thirteen-year-old Stephanie Singleton won First All-Around at her session with a first in each of the four events and also won the highest all-around score with a 37.2. Stephanie has won many First-Place All-Around placements and was not only a member of the Jacksonville Gymnastics 2007 Level Five State Championship Team, but she was also 2007 State All-Around Champion for her age bracket.
Sierra Rohauer – Perfect Ten in our Books!!!
Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Four Competitive Team Member, nine-year-old Sierra Rohauer has the distinct honor of being the Team’s first team member to receive a perfect ten on any event. Sierra has been at Huff 'n Puff for four years and was a member of the Level Three team last year; this was her first year as a Level Four gymnast. She placed third in her age bracket with an all-around score of 37.15.
We are so proud of each and every Jacksonville Team Member, no matter their age or their level. It is very important for gymnasts and parents to know that each gymnast is important to the team and can contribute to the team scores counted for award. The gymnasts all contribute in other ways too - their support and friendship for each other is unmeasurable. Competition season is not over but we want you all to know how very much we appreciate you and all that you have done to contribute to a winning team. We also hope that each child has learned more than skills through her gymnastics training.
After the meet, the hard work of the parents commenced--dismantling and loading into an 18-wheeler all of the heavy equipment, spring floors, and the many mats, in addition to emptying the heavy water boxes used as ballasts for the bars. This work, was just the reverse of all the work accomplished Friday morning by some volunteering parents and children in the unloading, assembling and placement of the equipment correctly according to USAG requirements and filling the water ballast containers that anchor the bars to the floor, no easy task in itself.
Jacksonville and central Arkansas can well be proud of the Jacksonville Gymnastics Team (with its many gymnasts from all over central Arkansas). It is definitely one of the largest teams in the State and the gymnasts and coaches are recognized for their abilities. The success of the gymnasts and the team can be rightly attributed to the hard work of the gymnast, her coaches and her parents and grandparents. The success of the Sweetheart Meet can also be directly attributed to the hard work of the coaches, Laurel Spears, Head Coach and Meet Director, Assistant Head Coach and Assistant Meet Director Erin Wunderl and team coaches Lois Bryan, Christy Ellis, Lindsay Sweet and Assistant Coach Bonnie Brown. Accolades also go to Mr. Bobby, our Lead Recreational Coach, to our staff who spent many hours at the meet this weekend, and especially to our always supportive parents. We can never tell you the extent of our appreciation - as I have said before, we would be nothing without all of you - staff and parents!! T. J. - you always make the meet so enjoyable - I especially like the entry music because it makes the gymnasts feel so important. Several people asked me if you were a professional disk jockey. Second line of work???
Additionally, our appreciation goes to all the sponsors of the meet for their wonderful support of the Sweetheart Invitational Meet. These sponsors are far too many to list right here, but I will be working on the list so you may know who these sponsors were. We especially thank our team parents Eric Hodson, State Farm Representative (and wife Michal), who sponsored the trophies; North Point Collision Center who helped sponsor the fabulous meet t-shirts; and Jacksonville gymnast parents, Dr. Loren Bartole, (Family Foot Care), and Access Rehab and Therapy Service owner Tom Bartole, who donated the grip bags and drink containers for the gymnasts; and to team parents and families from the Candy Bouquet who donated all the beautiful centerpieces for the Hospitality Room. Our appreciation is also extended to the many local businesses that donated food and services for the Hospitality Room for the many coaches and the ten judges. These sponsors will be listed later tonight or tomorrow. We certainly do thank them.
Words cannot express our gratitude to our parents who have supported us in so many ways. We know that you all worked very hard to make this meet the wonderful success that it was. Many of you worked on committees to obtain donations of food and ads, to help with the setup and decorating and in many other ways. The special thanks and appreciation from the entire staff to Paula and Blake Ramsey and Korinna Driskill for the many, many hours they spent on preparing the wonderful program for the meet. We were so proud to have it represent Jacksonville Gymnastics.
Read below sponsors for "Heart of a Champion" that I wrote last year and gymnastics prayer from meet.
I'm listing here some of the sponsors who furnished food for the Hospitality Room for the Judges and Coaches; also some donated coupons or certificates to be handed out. We sincerely appreciate all of them (some of them went over and above in their support of us) and we hope you will take the time when visiting these businesses, and those listed above, to mention that their donations were sincerely appreciated by all.
Chile's - Jacksonville
Cici's Pizza - Jacksonville
CJ's Cafe and Deli - Cabot
Coca Cola Bottling Company of Arkansas
Colton's Steak House & Grill - Cabot
Daylight Donuts
Dixie Cafe - Cabot
Larry's Pizza - Cabot
Shogun Japanese Steakhouse
Sonic
Super Suppers - Cabot
Wendy's - Jacksonville
Western Sizzlin - Jacksonville
Many more sponsors that I will thank a little later. Sorry to be so late - life somehow steps in and interrupts work - Sheryl
Thoughts from previous article written last year after Sweetheart Invitational last year - I just found it again.
Heart of a Champion
It takes more than skill and talent, and muscle and brains to become a gymnast. A gymnast must have heart and with the heart comes the love for the sport and the fortitude to stick with it when the going gets tough. Who else would want to go the gym to work as many as 16 hours a week at conditioning, or to work at those bars skills, and continue to work until they have blisters on their hands that end up in a rip that bleeds. Who else but a gymnast would want to condition for an hour each day and then go run at full speed toward something that others call a “vault” and hit it at full speed, to tumble over it and land on your back, or your knees or wherever, until you finally learn to pull off a tsukahara, not even knowing for years what that thing that the coaches called a “Tsuk” is. Wait – it’s the parents who don’t know for years what it is – most of even these young gymnasts these days know that a tsuk is a move that can be done over a vault (with difficulty). Even though the younger gymnasts do start their vaults out on a big block of foam, many of them can tell you Ms. So and So is doing her Tsuk now, or Ms. So and So can do a Yurchenko now. Many of our gymnasts put their heart into gymnastics every day and never end up on the top of that award stand for the First Place for Individual All-Around. But when they do earn that award for the very first time, and the pride hits them and they see the pride in their parents’ eyes - then they know that this moment is just the icing on the cake.
Sweetheart Invitational Gymnastics Prayer
Father God, You created this day for gain not loss,
success not failure,
and for positive actions, not negative thoughts.
Lord, inspire these athletes with a desire for greatness
and to wisely use the gifts and talents
that You have so generously given to them;
for these are tools to be used, not treasures to be stored.
Create in these young competitors
the Right Attitude
to excel in the classroom and in life –
the attitude that says
“I can reach deeper inside myself.”
Build in them a Firm Belief in God,
themselves, their families, and their teammates,
and to have great expectations for their future.
Grace them with the Enduring Commitment
to persevere, to never quit no matter the score,
and to never give up, no matter the odds.
Father, please protect your children
from any harm and fill them with
Courage Unquenchable and Joy Overflowing.
We ask this in Your precious name,
Amen
JoAnn Ross - Tori Hanley's Aunt, January 26, 2006