Granny Smith
Proud Parent
- Jun 21, 2007
- 1,444
- 898
Yesterday was dd's 1st Level 8 Sectional. It was Capital Cup
format and there were 25 girls in dd's age group. Up through
Level 7 they has always had multiple locations for Sectionals,
usually 1 would take place in the South part of the state and 1
would be in the North (on the same day) and depending on the
location of your gym would determine where you would go. With this
method, you would usually compete against the same gyms and us being in the South would not really see the North gyms until States (or an
Invitational here and there if at all). I will say there are more
stronger gyms in the North than South, could be that the North part
of the State is more densely populated, so more kids to have to be
better. Anyways, I do have a point! My point is that for Level 8
this yr, the Sectional that was held yesterday was the only one,
everyone from all over the State that planned to attend, all came
together - so dd was going to see what was out there early in the
game, she didn't have to wait until States. Let me preface this by
saying that this Sectional fell on the same weekend as Parkettes, so
a few of the better gyms were not there (North Stars; ENA Paramus;
Rebound), but let me also add that these girls only have a couple of
girls in dd's age group, so do not know how much of a difference
it would have made. Ok, now on with the show....
Report time was 8:30, so we hit the road at 7:30 (which included our
stop at Wawa, local convenient store - needed to buy several snacks
for ds to survive the meet along with breakfast -also they have the
best hot chocolate, my guilty pleasure) for our 45 minute drive to
Rutgers University - love this gym, warm up behind huge curtain, so
you see nothing and can watch the other flight without a care in the
world. I was surprisingly at ease, not too nervous. I know all she
needed was a 32 to qualify and from her previous meets, even with
multiple falls she still has easily achieved over a 32, so I assumed
it would go pretty good for her. Her rotation was a good one, she
was starting on bars. I thought this would work well for dd.
There were 2 sessions and dd was in the 1st session with 3 of her
teammates (the other 3 were in the later session, based on age
group). Dd was competing against 2 of her teammates (12 yr old
group) and the other one was a 14 yr old.
Bars - They put dd up last in her group. Her BFF went right
before her and scored a 9.475. Dd goes and her bar work was some
of the best I've seen. She kips to pirouette which was good
although when she casted there was a little leg separation, but very
solid pirouette. She changed her squat on from tuck to pike and it
looked beautiful. She jumps to high bar and does a beautiful clear
hip nailed HS (as coach says, pop and lock) giant, giant flyaway. I
turn to dh and said that was awesome she going going to score big
because her bars were better than BFF. BFF didn't hit HS after
clear hip, yadda, yadda. Her score 9.425. Great score, but what
the heck happened, it should of been higher. Well, I couldn't see
the landing and she took a step and leaned forward and almost fell
over. Coaches told her Judges took up to .3 off for landing - OK,
well at least that explains it. I really was thinking she would of
had like a 9.6 based on previous scores so I couldn't understand,
but she did clear things up for me. Her score was good enough for
5th place. 1st place was a 9.55, which I think she would of taken
if it wasn't for her freak landing. That's ok, it gives her
something to strive for.
Beam - Well, ya know her issues with beam. She can hit the BT, she
can hit the FHS, both skills that could be taken out of the routine
for her to go clean, but the child is having a hard time making that
series, which can not be taken out of the routine. She hits it in
practice pretty consistently, but maybe it's the nerves that get her
at a meet or something - I don't know. But, let me tell ya
something, I don't care because she came out there with guns a
blazing! She was up 2nd of her group. She mounts, BT,
slight bobble/balance check. Switch leap beautiful, BHS-BHS, hits
it baby solid! Full turn, solid. FHS solid. All that's left is
the dismount. Me - quick prayer to God for safe uneventful
dismount. God hears my prayer and answers. RO-BT, she hits. Beam
is over! Score flashes 9.425. Yahoo, this is my kid, my kid
doesn't get 9.4s on beam - I'm dance a jig. Wait a minute,
something funny just happens, they flash another score. The score
now flashed 9.525. Turns out there was a misunderstanding between
the Judges and dd's score is actually a 9.525. Wowza, wowza!
This was good for 1st place.
Floor - Love, love, love floor. Floor is always kind to dd. Let
me just say that the very first score of the meet on floor was a 9.2
and I did not think the routine was out of this world or anything,
but I knew the judges were not being as hard as they can be. In the
past 2 NJ meets that dd competed in 9.2s were winning it and now
it was the very first score of the meet. I knew it would be
interesting when our girls got to floor on the 3rd rotation. I
think dd was the 2nd one up. Routine solid as usual. She is
really working on cleaning up tiny little things now, getting her
front leg up higher on split leap which is gorgeous already, she is
also working on her double stag jump, making it more crisp (I don't
know how else to say it) and her 1.5 turn to save the tenth here and
there (trying to keep her chest up more, blah, blah, blah). Also
really focusing on landings, trying to be solid every time, no
steps. I think she has made some improvements overall, but she is
still working really hard. Score - 9.65. 1st Place.
Vault - Yeah unfortunately she does have to vault. Can't we just
take the best of 3 events for AA - can I make up this new rule, I
think most parents and some coaches would like this rule. I say
still compete 4 events, but we only have to count 3. She's warming
up. First flip in warm up lands and then falls to back, very
similar to last meet, but at least she didn't hit her head this
time. 2nd warm up she hits and lands the vault, it was lovely, BUT
it was only warm up. 1st official vault, she lands on feet and momentum
takes her back to her tush. Ok, ok, she still has another chance. 2nd vault, she lands on feet, little short and slightly puts her hands down. Oh well, she did her best and her other events were fabulous, so that's ok.
Her score - amazingly 8.65. We looked at each other in shock. I
will say though on the 2nd vault with the except of her hands
brushing the mat, obviously she landed a little low, her actual
vault was really nice. 8.65 we will take that, that is the highest
vault score this season thus far!
AA - 37.25 This was good enough for 2nd place. The funny thing was
during the meet her vault score flashed as 8.7 and all of us parents
had her AA as 37.3 which would have given her 1st place AA, but
after the fact we found out her actual score was 8.65 which put
her .025 behind 1st place. 1st place was 37.275. Her teammate took
1st place, dd 2nd and dd's other teammate and BFF took 3rd
with a 36.9 something.
As dd said, HC can't yell at them about this meet. It was a very
strong showing. Her other teammate in the 14 yr old group took 2nd
place. I am not sure how the other 3 who were in the next session
did, but I am hoping that everyone qualified. Now she is back in
the gym preparing for her next meet which is in 2 weeks - the
Chicago one...
format and there were 25 girls in dd's age group. Up through
Level 7 they has always had multiple locations for Sectionals,
usually 1 would take place in the South part of the state and 1
would be in the North (on the same day) and depending on the
location of your gym would determine where you would go. With this
method, you would usually compete against the same gyms and us being in the South would not really see the North gyms until States (or an
Invitational here and there if at all). I will say there are more
stronger gyms in the North than South, could be that the North part
of the State is more densely populated, so more kids to have to be
better. Anyways, I do have a point! My point is that for Level 8
this yr, the Sectional that was held yesterday was the only one,
everyone from all over the State that planned to attend, all came
together - so dd was going to see what was out there early in the
game, she didn't have to wait until States. Let me preface this by
saying that this Sectional fell on the same weekend as Parkettes, so
a few of the better gyms were not there (North Stars; ENA Paramus;
Rebound), but let me also add that these girls only have a couple of
girls in dd's age group, so do not know how much of a difference
it would have made. Ok, now on with the show....
Report time was 8:30, so we hit the road at 7:30 (which included our
stop at Wawa, local convenient store - needed to buy several snacks
for ds to survive the meet along with breakfast -also they have the
best hot chocolate, my guilty pleasure) for our 45 minute drive to
Rutgers University - love this gym, warm up behind huge curtain, so
you see nothing and can watch the other flight without a care in the
world. I was surprisingly at ease, not too nervous. I know all she
needed was a 32 to qualify and from her previous meets, even with
multiple falls she still has easily achieved over a 32, so I assumed
it would go pretty good for her. Her rotation was a good one, she
was starting on bars. I thought this would work well for dd.
There were 2 sessions and dd was in the 1st session with 3 of her
teammates (the other 3 were in the later session, based on age
group). Dd was competing against 2 of her teammates (12 yr old
group) and the other one was a 14 yr old.
Bars - They put dd up last in her group. Her BFF went right
before her and scored a 9.475. Dd goes and her bar work was some
of the best I've seen. She kips to pirouette which was good
although when she casted there was a little leg separation, but very
solid pirouette. She changed her squat on from tuck to pike and it
looked beautiful. She jumps to high bar and does a beautiful clear
hip nailed HS (as coach says, pop and lock) giant, giant flyaway. I
turn to dh and said that was awesome she going going to score big
because her bars were better than BFF. BFF didn't hit HS after
clear hip, yadda, yadda. Her score 9.425. Great score, but what
the heck happened, it should of been higher. Well, I couldn't see
the landing and she took a step and leaned forward and almost fell
over. Coaches told her Judges took up to .3 off for landing - OK,
well at least that explains it. I really was thinking she would of
had like a 9.6 based on previous scores so I couldn't understand,
but she did clear things up for me. Her score was good enough for
5th place. 1st place was a 9.55, which I think she would of taken
if it wasn't for her freak landing. That's ok, it gives her
something to strive for.
Beam - Well, ya know her issues with beam. She can hit the BT, she
can hit the FHS, both skills that could be taken out of the routine
for her to go clean, but the child is having a hard time making that
series, which can not be taken out of the routine. She hits it in
practice pretty consistently, but maybe it's the nerves that get her
at a meet or something - I don't know. But, let me tell ya
something, I don't care because she came out there with guns a
blazing! She was up 2nd of her group. She mounts, BT,
slight bobble/balance check. Switch leap beautiful, BHS-BHS, hits
it baby solid! Full turn, solid. FHS solid. All that's left is
the dismount. Me - quick prayer to God for safe uneventful
dismount. God hears my prayer and answers. RO-BT, she hits. Beam
is over! Score flashes 9.425. Yahoo, this is my kid, my kid
doesn't get 9.4s on beam - I'm dance a jig. Wait a minute,
something funny just happens, they flash another score. The score
now flashed 9.525. Turns out there was a misunderstanding between
the Judges and dd's score is actually a 9.525. Wowza, wowza!
This was good for 1st place.
Floor - Love, love, love floor. Floor is always kind to dd. Let
me just say that the very first score of the meet on floor was a 9.2
and I did not think the routine was out of this world or anything,
but I knew the judges were not being as hard as they can be. In the
past 2 NJ meets that dd competed in 9.2s were winning it and now
it was the very first score of the meet. I knew it would be
interesting when our girls got to floor on the 3rd rotation. I
think dd was the 2nd one up. Routine solid as usual. She is
really working on cleaning up tiny little things now, getting her
front leg up higher on split leap which is gorgeous already, she is
also working on her double stag jump, making it more crisp (I don't
know how else to say it) and her 1.5 turn to save the tenth here and
there (trying to keep her chest up more, blah, blah, blah). Also
really focusing on landings, trying to be solid every time, no
steps. I think she has made some improvements overall, but she is
still working really hard. Score - 9.65. 1st Place.
Vault - Yeah unfortunately she does have to vault. Can't we just
take the best of 3 events for AA - can I make up this new rule, I
think most parents and some coaches would like this rule. I say
still compete 4 events, but we only have to count 3. She's warming
up. First flip in warm up lands and then falls to back, very
similar to last meet, but at least she didn't hit her head this
time. 2nd warm up she hits and lands the vault, it was lovely, BUT
it was only warm up. 1st official vault, she lands on feet and momentum
takes her back to her tush. Ok, ok, she still has another chance. 2nd vault, she lands on feet, little short and slightly puts her hands down. Oh well, she did her best and her other events were fabulous, so that's ok.
Her score - amazingly 8.65. We looked at each other in shock. I
will say though on the 2nd vault with the except of her hands
brushing the mat, obviously she landed a little low, her actual
vault was really nice. 8.65 we will take that, that is the highest
vault score this season thus far!
AA - 37.25 This was good enough for 2nd place. The funny thing was
during the meet her vault score flashed as 8.7 and all of us parents
had her AA as 37.3 which would have given her 1st place AA, but
after the fact we found out her actual score was 8.65 which put
her .025 behind 1st place. 1st place was 37.275. Her teammate took
1st place, dd 2nd and dd's other teammate and BFF took 3rd
with a 36.9 something.
As dd said, HC can't yell at them about this meet. It was a very
strong showing. Her other teammate in the 14 yr old group took 2nd
place. I am not sure how the other 3 who were in the next session
did, but I am hoping that everyone qualified. Now she is back in
the gym preparing for her next meet which is in 2 weeks - the
Chicago one...
! Sounds like she is awesome - both of you should be very proud!! I also love your reports, you hardly need video, I can picture it while reading
