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We haven’t posted Caitlyn’s meet results in a while, so, if you’re interested, here’s a re-cap of the last two meets:
Arnold Sports Festival,
As the highest beam score (9.45) of her session, and the 2nd highest of all level 7s, Caitlyn made it to beam event finals. It was neat to see levels 7 through 10 competing at the same time at the finals; we saw some fantastic gymnastics! At the finals, Caitlyn randomly drew the 2nd to last spot, which is usually a great spot to be. She did a tremendous routine. It was as good, if not better, as the routine that she did at the original meet, and it was definitely one of the top 3 routines there. We were shocked when her score came up: 9.25, which was middle of the road compared to others. Now, please understand that we are not “that type†of parents who complain and are ultra-competitive, but we were shocked when her score appeared. It is safe to say that I was even angry for the first time at a meet (much to Sean’s amusement, I think
), although I knew that it only mattered that Caitlyn had done such an awesome routine and that she felt good about it. When we saw the coaches’ reactions—both hers and those from other gyms--, we knew we were not off in our thoughts. Our coach was livid, as were the other gyms’ coaches. In fact, I’ve never seen Caitlyn’s coach like that. She had been watching for the score, which she really doesn’t usually do, thinking that it would be in the top 3. The score came up, other coaches’ jaws dropped, and they looked back at our coach, whose face went rigid. She walked over to the group of other coaches, and they conferred for awhile; obviously, all were upset. During awards, I thought our coach would beat her hand off, she was pounding it so furiously with a pencil! Again, she’s not like that normally. She spoke to the head judge then since one is not allowed to contest scores at event finals. What happened was that, at event finals, judges are not allowed to give the same score twice. Somehow, in an oversight, the judges had judged everyone close together, not leaving room for the last few girls at the top even though they had a list of their scores from the original meet and could see that Cait had the 2nd highest score of all originally. The judges apparently didn’t think that she was the 1st place winner at the finals, and they couldn’t put her at 2nd or 3rd. In fact, this spot was the highest one left over. Weird, eh? Oh, well . . . We learned ourselves that, surprise, surprise, gymnastics is not fair, but, more importantly, this reaffirmed to us that Caitlyn’s coach has her back, and that, when it comes down to it, it really only matters that Caitlyn feels good about how well she does. Event Finals is a cool thing, and it was still a great experience. It’d be neat if more meets had them!
States: Beam State Champ, and a great end to the season! See the video below if you wish; it will explain more. There’s also a neat part in the video of Cait during pre-event visualization.
Cait had a great time competing but was ready for level 7 to be over so she could train exclusively for TOPs and Level 8. It has been a great learning year.
Thanks,
Sean (who has been so quiet here lately) and Jen (who wrote this)
YouTube - sjccrr's Channel
Arnold Sports Festival,
As the highest beam score (9.45) of her session, and the 2nd highest of all level 7s, Caitlyn made it to beam event finals. It was neat to see levels 7 through 10 competing at the same time at the finals; we saw some fantastic gymnastics! At the finals, Caitlyn randomly drew the 2nd to last spot, which is usually a great spot to be. She did a tremendous routine. It was as good, if not better, as the routine that she did at the original meet, and it was definitely one of the top 3 routines there. We were shocked when her score came up: 9.25, which was middle of the road compared to others. Now, please understand that we are not “that type†of parents who complain and are ultra-competitive, but we were shocked when her score appeared. It is safe to say that I was even angry for the first time at a meet (much to Sean’s amusement, I think
), although I knew that it only mattered that Caitlyn had done such an awesome routine and that she felt good about it. When we saw the coaches’ reactions—both hers and those from other gyms--, we knew we were not off in our thoughts. Our coach was livid, as were the other gyms’ coaches. In fact, I’ve never seen Caitlyn’s coach like that. She had been watching for the score, which she really doesn’t usually do, thinking that it would be in the top 3. The score came up, other coaches’ jaws dropped, and they looked back at our coach, whose face went rigid. She walked over to the group of other coaches, and they conferred for awhile; obviously, all were upset. During awards, I thought our coach would beat her hand off, she was pounding it so furiously with a pencil! Again, she’s not like that normally. She spoke to the head judge then since one is not allowed to contest scores at event finals. What happened was that, at event finals, judges are not allowed to give the same score twice. Somehow, in an oversight, the judges had judged everyone close together, not leaving room for the last few girls at the top even though they had a list of their scores from the original meet and could see that Cait had the 2nd highest score of all originally. The judges apparently didn’t think that she was the 1st place winner at the finals, and they couldn’t put her at 2nd or 3rd. In fact, this spot was the highest one left over. Weird, eh? Oh, well . . . We learned ourselves that, surprise, surprise, gymnastics is not fair, but, more importantly, this reaffirmed to us that Caitlyn’s coach has her back, and that, when it comes down to it, it really only matters that Caitlyn feels good about how well she does. Event Finals is a cool thing, and it was still a great experience. It’d be neat if more meets had them!States: Beam State Champ, and a great end to the season! See the video below if you wish; it will explain more. There’s also a neat part in the video of Cait during pre-event visualization.
Cait had a great time competing but was ready for level 7 to be over so she could train exclusively for TOPs and Level 8. It has been a great learning year.
Thanks,
Sean (who has been so quiet here lately
) and Jen (who wrote this)YouTube - sjccrr's Channel
I've never heard of that before since my dd was L6 this season, we've not run into event finals. Is that how ALL event finals are run? That is the weirdest thing I've heard of. Why not just allow the same score and have ties? If they are truely tied for 2nd place, I don't see what harm it is to have a 2nd place tie, then no place for 3rd and continue on with 4th. Am I crazy thinking that? 
), and she loved seeing how her coach and those from other gyms rallied behind her. She is stonger because of it all.
It has been so exciting following her progress. Thanks for sharing her journey with us! Keep up the great work Cait. Is it official yet? I can't wait to say... "Cait, Cait, she's a level 8!"
