I probably shouldn't jump in here as I don't yet have an optionals competitor. However, I took a quick look at mymeetscores. Last season, the L8s on our team were placed in groups for medal/scoring purposes that had even members of gymnasts. The group's were generally labeled Jr.A, Sr. C, etc. This held true at our State Meet as well. However, at Regionals, some of the groups had 25ish gymnasts, while other groups had 50+.
My assumption is that all the meets, except Regionals, did what our gym does and puts all the girls at any one session at one level in a list by birthday and then figured out how many gymnasts they want per award group and cut off the groups by that number. This method means that 2 gymnasts with close ages on the sane team May compete against each other at one meet, but not at another. So, whether a child is competing in a group of all 10 year olds our mostly 11 year olds, etc., depends entirely on the spread of ages at a particular meet.
My assumption is that all the meets, except Regionals, did what our gym does and puts all the girls at any one session at one level in a list by birthday and then figured out how many gymnasts they want per award group and cut off the groups by that number. This method means that 2 gymnasts with close ages on the sane team May compete against each other at one meet, but not at another. So, whether a child is competing in a group of all 10 year olds our mostly 11 year olds, etc., depends entirely on the spread of ages at a particular meet.