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WEB RELEASE                                                                                          FEBRUARY 15, 2009

JACKSONVILLE GYMNASTICS TEAM, LEVELS FOUR - NINE,

SUCCESSFULLY COMPETED AT

FLAME CO ED INVITATIONAL MEET - FORT SMITH

Jacksonville Gymnastics Team, Levels Four through Nine attended the Flame Gymnastics Academy Co Ed Invitational Meet this weekend, February 13-14-15.  The large meet, attended by over 450 female and nearly 100 male gymnasts representing 22 teams from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, was held at the beautiful Fort Smith Convention Center.  Arkansas teams attending were Aspire Athletics, Bentonville; Cabot Gymnastics, Cabot; Champions Gymnastics, Paragould;  Delta Gymnastics, West Memphis; Didion Athletics, Van Buren; Dorsey’s Gymnastics, Sheridan;  Durham’s Gymnastics, Springdale;  Flame Gymnastics Academy, Fort Smith; Flip-Flop Gymnastics, Pine Bluff; Gym Stars, Searcy; Regional Aries, Rogers; River City Gymnastics, Little Rock; Russellville Gym Twisters, Russellville; Sonshine Academy, Conway; Tena’s Gymnastics, Russellville; Westside YMCA, Little Rock; and Williams Center, Fayetteville.

Medals were awarded to the top ten gymnasts in each event and for all-around in each session.  Plaques were awarded to the top team placements, depending on how many teams were competing.  We want to thank Dan and Laura  and Flame Gymnastics Academy parents for their wonderful hospitality.

The meet began at 1:00 Friday afternoon for 71 Level Five gymnasts from ten teams.  Jacksonville gymnasts, however, did not compete in this session.  They, instead, competed Saturday morning Level Five session.

The session for Levels Eight, Nine and Ten was held at 5:00.  Thirty-five optional gymnasts from nine teams were registered to compete at this time, including four Level Ten gymnasts, along with 24 Level Eight gymnasts and seven Level Nine gymnasts.  Several of the registered gymnasts were unable to compete, however, so the competing number of gymnasts was slightly lower than those registered. 

Pictures of each level and First-Place All-Around winners are shown below.

Four of the five Jacksonville Level Eight Team gymnasts competed in this evening session with 23 gymnasts from six teams.  The four competing gymnasts, who won the Third-Place Team Plaque for Jacksonville Gymnastics, were Taylor Butler, Kimmie Edwards, Tori Hanley and Krista Carlisle.  Winning top (First, Second or Third) Individual All-Around Honors were Kimmie Edwards, age thirteen, Second-Place All-Around; and Tori Hanley, age fourteen, Third-Place All-Around.

Top event placements for our Level Eight Team follow:

Level Eight gymnasts from left to right - Kimmie Edwards, Taylor Butler, Tori Hanley and Krista Carlisle.  (I forgot to ask the gymnasts to put their medals back on.  Sorry.)  The gymnasts won the Third-Place Team Plaque.  Unable to compete was Allyson Ferren.

Three of our five Level Nine gymnasts also competed in this session and won the First-Place Team Plaque.  Individual top All-Around Honors were won by our gymnasts as follow:  Kayla Edgin, First-Place, Taylor Rai Johnson, Second Place and Haley Edgin, Third Place.     

Top event placements for our Level Nine Team follow:

Level Nine Gymnasts, Haley Edgin, Taylor Rai Johnson and Kayla Edgin pose with their First-Place Team Plaque.  Unable to compete were Courtney Ellis and Sarah McAllister.

The second session for Level Five Teams was held Saturday morning at 8:00.  Seventy-nine gymnasts representing eleven teams (including a very tough team from Oklahoma) competed in this session.  The early morning Saturday session is probably the toughest of the sessions because of the early get-up time required in order to be ready to compete by 8:00.  Our Level Five gymnasts have had this wonderful opportunity for three meets in a row now and it’s tough for them.  Our Level Five team won the Third-Place Team Plaque.  Competing gymnasts were: Sabrina Barger, Sarah Beavers, Abby Houghtaling, Anna Huston, Briyana Isaac, Allison Ramsey, Sierra Rohauer, Sarah Seibel, Skylar Spaeth, Madi Spears and Mattie Taylor.

Top event placements for our Level Five Team follow:

Shown here after proudly winning the Third-Place Team Plaque, Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Five Team Gymnasts are (First row, left to right) Abby Houghtaling, Mattie Taylor, Allison Ramsey and Sarah Beavers.  Second row are Madi Spears and Sierra Rohauer.  Third-row gymnasts are Briyana Isaac, Sabrina Barger, Sarah Seibel, Skylar Spaeth, and Anna Huston.

Competing in the noontime session were 52 Level Six gymnasts from fourteen teams and Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Six Team proudly won the First-Place Team Plaque.  Competing were Kennedy Driskill, Rachel Flippen, Katelin McLain, Jordan Rogers and Lynzie VanBrocklin.

Rachel Flippen won the First-Place Individual All-Around Medal for the age eleven gymnasts. Jordan Rogers, age nine, won Second-Place All-Around and Katelin McLain won Second-Place All-Around for age twelve.

Top event placements for our Level Six Team follow:

Jacksonville Gymnastics Level Six Team came out on top of a hard fought competition with scores from the  fourth-place team of _ _ _.025 to _ _ _.60 to _ _ _ .80 to _ _ _ .875.  This was close for all teams and our team came out on top, winning the First-Place Team Plaque.  From left to right are Katelin McLain, Lynzie VanBrocklin, Rachel Flippen, Kennedy Driskill and Jordan Rogers.

Competing in the evening session were 59 Level Seven Gymnasts from thirteen teams, including five of the seven-member team from Jacksonville Gymnastics, who won the Second-Place Team Plaque.  Competing were Tonie Butler, Mackenzie Ellis, Kendra Lytch, Jessica McDonough and Stephanie Singleton.  Tonie Butler, age nine, and Mackenzie Ellis, age ten, each won the Individual Second-Place All-Around for their age brackets.   And additionally, the team won the Second-Place Team Plaque.

Top event placements for our Level Seven Team follow:

Level Seven Team members proudly pose with their Second-Place Team Plaque.  Shown here from left to right are Tonie Butler, Kendra Lytch, Mackenzie Ellis, Jessica McDonough and Stephanie Singleton (kneeling).  Unable to compete were Kelsy Founds and Tori Spears.

Competing in the first Level Four Session on Sunday at 10:00 were 93 gymnasts from nine teams, including the seventeen gymnasts from Jacksonville Gymnastics.  (Another 78 gymnasts from seven other teams competed in the Sunday afternoon session.)  The Jacksonville Gymnastics Team Members, who won the Second-Place Team Plaque, were Sarah Balenko, Madison Barnhill, Miranda Chambers, Jessica Gardner, Dalianna Gonzalez, Sara Heil, Olivia Hodson, Courtney Jackson, Mollie Johnson, Jenna Mecca, Lauren Osburn, Taylor Parker, Jadyn Perkins, Lauren Travis, Marissa Wallace, Madison Williams and Rachel Wyrick.

Madison Barnhill, age twelve, won the First-Place Individual All-Around Honor for her age.  Also winning top All-Around honors for their age groups were Jadyn Perkins, age ten, Second-Place All-Around; Miranda Chambers, age nine, Third-Place All-Around; and Dalianna Gonzalez, age twelve, Third-Place All-around.

Wow, Gymnasts!  What a great job you did - and luckily we were able, in spite of all the confusion going on around us, to get a great photo of you all.  Front row, from left to right, are Olivia Hodson, Taylor Parker, Sara Balenko, Sara Heil and Courtney Jackson.  Second row (left to right) are Madison Barnhill, Marissa Wallace, Mollie Johnson, Lauren Osburn, Jadyn Perkins and Jenna Mecca.  Back row standing and being held are Jessica Gardner, Miranda Chambers, Dalianna Gonzalez, Madison Williams, Rachel Wyrick and Lauren Travis.

Individual All-Around photos and other pictures are shown below.  Please check out these other photos.

I think it is very important for us to remember and to also remind our gymnasts that even though she may not win a top honors, each gymnast contributes to the team as a whole and each gymnast is very important to the team.  The great part about gymnastics is that it is both an individual and team sport.

The next meet for the Jacksonville Gymnastics Team will be its own hosted Emerald Classic Meet that will be held March 6-7-8 at the Cabot High School Gymnasium.  This will be a very large meet with about 630 gymnasts expected to compete.  The meet will be held in seven sessions and help from all team parents and gymnasts will be needed for Jacksonville Gym to host the great meet that has come to be expected of them.  The meet really requires a lot from our coaches but they feel it is worth the work as long as the meet is successful.  Competition among the gymnasts is wonderful, but friendliness and courtesy are our greatest assets.

Kayla Edgin - Level Nine - First All-Around

Rachel Flippen - Level Six - First-All-Around, age eleven bracket

Madison Barnhill - Level Four - First All-Around, age twelve and up

(Photo by Brian Vest, Vest Photography)

Kayla Edgin, Level Nine, Floor Leap

(Photo by Brian Vest - Vest Photography)

Kayla, Level Nine - on Beam - Beautiful Leap!

(Photo by Brian Vest, Vest Photography)

Haley Edgin, Level Nine - in middle of back handspring on Beam

Coach Laurel and Coach Erin at dinner in hotel Friday night after meet

Coach Christy and husband John at dinner Friday night - after meet.

Our hotel (Holiday Inn) at Convention Center - it looks ritzy but was as reasonable as all the others we've stayed in (and believe me, we look for the bargains!)  Lit box-looking thing was elevator.  The beige stripes were the walls of the balcony - red lights were hallway exit lights.  The meet was in this same building just two long hallways away.

Three non-competing (this meet) gymnasts - note Kelsy's broken finger and Courtney's boot.  Courtney has good news though - ortho said if doesn't hurt, since it's not growth plate, she can tape and compete, so we have great hopes for our meet.

Courtney - you should have gotten the boot in navy blue to match warm up!  Hopefully it will be off before somebody grabs it to sparkle it up!!!

Couldn't resist - this is what younger gymnasts do in their spare time (after tumbling passes across an empty area in the downstairs hotel area) - act silly and giggle a lot!

If any parents have action shots from this meet and can scan and send them to me, we will start an action photography page for meet.  Thanks!

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