Classic Rock Invitational

For better or worse, our family vacations now often revolve around gymnastics meets.  The Classic Rock Invitational was held in Phoenix, AZ and since it coincided with the kids' mid-winter break, we decided to spend a week in the desert sun.  

Some friends of ours recently moved to Arizona from Washington and we got to stay the week in their beautiful home.  Documentation of our fun in the sun will come later, but for now, here's a recap on the gymnastics portion of our trip.

Alyssa was the first to compete.  She woke to this message that my friend, Tracy, left for her:

She greeted her teammates at the Phoenix Convention Center.  Here they are gearing up for their competition:

Floor was the first event.  It wasn't her best performance of the season but it was still a good routine.  She scored a 9.15.

I love her "concentration face":

Front layout:

She did well on vault--8.8 (4th place), and had a great save on a handstand on bars--9.375 (5th place).

I thought her beam routine was by far the best of the season but unfortunately, the judges didn't think she connected her series (back walkover back handspring) well enough so they only scored the routine out of a 9.5 instead of a 10.  Such a bummer!  She was robbed, I tell you.  Robbed!

This great routine scored an 8.85:

Her 36.175 all-around score earned her 4th place.  She hit all four events--going four for four, we call it--which is always the main goal, so we were very proud of her.

There is such a great sense of team at our gym.  I love it!  Some of the eights posed for a picture with the level nine team that was getting ready to compete next:

Front row: Maison (L8), Kati (L8), Samantha (L9), Gracie (L9), Shilese (L9) and Alyssa (L8).  Back row: Emma (or it might be her twin, Clare) (L8), Eden (L9), Cheyenne (L9), Alex (L9) and Ali (L8).

Many meets present gymnasts with a gift.  Usually they are t-shirts, cinch sacks or just goodie bags, but this meet gave the gymnasts the cutest little animal neck pillows that were embroidered with the meet logo.  There were several different animals to choose from.  Lys chose a panda, Nat a pink dog.

After the meet we rode the light rail with some of Alyssa's teammates to eat dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  It's so great for these hard-working athletes to have these times to just have fun together.

Proof that Alyssa does know how to "let loose" every now and then:

How many gymnasts can you fit in a telephone booth?  At least six.

 

Natalie competed two days later.  Her team is so large, they were split into two groups.  She was in the half that started on floor.

Judging was some of the toughest I've seen but she did a good floor routine which earned an 8.25 (6th place).  

Her first vault was solid but something went wrong in the run of her second vault and she crashed over the vault table and landed on her back.  The fall scared her more than anything and though she tried her best to be brave, she couldn't quite stop the tears from flowing.  I desperately wanted to run to her, hold her and tell her she'd be okay but since parents aren't allowed on the gym floor, I was grateful for two of her little teammates who hugged her for me.  Then they each took one of Nat's hands and walked her to her next event.  So sweet.  A vault score is determined by the better of the two vaults.  Since her second vault was a void, the first was the one to earn her 8.45 vault score (6th place).

Then it was on to bars where Natalie bounced right back and got her highest score of the day--8.725 (3rd place).

I was nervous for beam because of the really low scores I'd been seeing all day.  But like Lys, Nat did her best routine of the season.  She got an 8.0.



Put that all together and you get a 3rd place all-around finish.  I thought the guitar-shaped medals were so cute.

Her team won the first place trophy, which for this meet was a real electric guitar!  Here they are at their post-meet team meeting:

Natalie has long had an infatuation with palm trees so we thought she should pose in front of them with her new awards.

Another great meet.  We sure have fun watching the girls do their thing.

*If you're interested in seeing all of their routines, you can go here.