Parents Zones... Phew...

[Empowered]

My daughter competed at Zones this weekend and true to form for the year the scoring was downright brutal. I hope to get some videos up shortly but she did qualify to States... Yay!!

There were 97 girls who qualified to Zones and only 44 met the qualifying score of 34.00. To put perspective on how tough the scoring was, last year there were only 79 girls at Zones (18 less) and 51 qualified (7 more).

My daughter's scores were as follows:

Vault - 8.1
Bars - 9.025
Beam - 8.4
Floor - 8.550
Total - 34.075... Yowza squeeked in she did

I guess the good news is she must have saved all her great routines up for States... hehe

In all seriousness though it was a tough emotional day for the girls. 10 of her teammates did not qualify and there were many tears and hugs passed around. It is so frustrating that they work so hard for a year and have one day with awnry judges to hit a score or they're done. Yes I know that's the nature of competitive gymnastics, but it's not like we're talking about teenage girls who can rationalize it all... 7, 8 and 9 year olds just feel crushed.

 

[Empowered]

YouTube - 2010 Zone 8 Championships Level 5

Here is a link to all but vault. There was no way point in recording it because you couldn't 90% of it... lol

 

[gym law mom]

Congrats to your dd for making it to states. You said 10 of her teammates didn't make it---how many are on her team? At L5, I think they should still be more encouraging at getting girls to states than the numbers you posted. I know in some states that do sectional qualifying the girls get more than 1 chance to get that qualifying score.

As for your dd(don't hate me), but if this was a group of by the book judges, then the scores were accurate to me----floor maybe a little low. With very tough judging she should certainly celebrate a 9 on bars. Seems she rushed beam and floor and that could have been from the nerves since this was such a pressure meet.

Tell her to have fun practicing for her state meet. I'm sure it will be a little tough since so many in her gym won't be getting ready for states.

 

[mariposa]

That is so tough when they have only certain meets to qualify to States. Puts a lot of pressure. Glad your DD qualified! She looked good to me!! Hope she has a great State meet!

 

[Jennemmy]

Glad she qualified. Good luck at states!

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

Wow what tough scoring, I am glad we are not in your State. I quess zones is the same as sectionals but we only needed a 33 to qualify in our state. Your daughter looked great congrads on her qualifiying!

 

[cathiann]

Agree with gym-law mom. Your daughter should be proud of how good she did! Scores were similar to what she would get here in Minnesota though. Good luck to her at State!!

 

[MdGymMom01]

Congrats on qualifying!!! I commented on your youtube page. She is such an elegant gymnast--love watching her!!

 

[Empowered]

Thank you for the congratulations wishes.

On my comment about the scoring being harsh, you are right that with by the book judging, which we have more often than not, she was judged fairly. She definitely was "off", especially on beam and knows she is lucky to have made the qualifying score. The vault scoring though was extremely low. Of the 97 girls there, only 5 scored a 9 or better.

That being said though, from what we were told the judging at zones is normally more lienant so there were quite a few shocked parents to see scores so low in general for all the level 5's.

And for Gymlawmom, there are 23 girls total on her team, but they don't all work out together. Of the group she works out with (the 1st year 5's) only 6 of 16 qualifed so you're right it's going to be a tough few weeks with so many of the girls feeling left out.

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

but it's not like we're talking about teenage girls who can rationalize it all... 7, 8 and 9 year olds just feel crushed.

TRUST ME... the teenaged girls can't rationalize it either!! Remember, they're in the throes of hormones as well as psyched for the meets!!! HA!!

Congrats to your DD. She did great and tell her to relax and have fun at States!

 

[NGL780309]

It's interesting to hear how girls qualify in different states for their state meet. Where I live it's not a certain score, but an AA placement. We had girls on DD's team that scored over a 34 and that wasn't even enough to qualify to South State.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

It's interesting to hear how girls qualify in different states for their state meet. Where I live it's not a certain score, but an AA placement. We had girls on DD's team that scored over a 34 and that wasn't even enough to qualify to South State.

It’s that way here as well. For L5, the top 40% of each age group at sectionals make it to States. They have a couple of wildcard slots for really competitive age divisions.

L5 is definitely the toughest compulsory group for states here. For L4 there’s just a qualify score and almost everyone makes it to States. And there are so few L6s that they need to let most of them go just to have a enough girls for a good meet.

 

[bogwoppit]

SHe did a lovely job on bars, nice that she qualified.

Try Quebec for size, my DD is a bout a L5/6 depending on the skill and day. IN her level there are 300 girls and the top 48 after three meets will go to zones and from there the top 32 will go to States equiv. Which means less than a one in six chance of zones. Mine will have three meets and that's it. She will not be going to zones.

Yes it's hard when girls don't make it, but if everybody made it, it wouldn't be as special. MIne made it last year at a lower level, she was ecstatic, so this year she knows it will be really tough to even get near the top 48. I'd be thrilled with top 150!!!