Sophia's Gymnastics Journey: 2013 Brestyan's Invitational

Welcome back family and friends! Sophia and her Elite teammates competed last night at the Brestyan's Invitational, which was held at the Cousen's Gymnasium at Tuft's University! This was a late night meet - open warm up was at 7pm! The Elite level 6 team started out the meet on beam! I, usually, dread beam first because that puts bars last up in the rotation! Plus, I get ultra nervous for Sophia when she starts out on beam but she was pretty happy beam was first -- she even told me on the way to the meet that she wanted beam to be the first event!
Well, I had no reason to be nervous or worried about her, because she rocked her beam routine! She did have one pretty good balance check (0.3 possible deduction) but still pulled off a 9.375 and took home 1st place honors in her age group! (I will go over the awards and age groups after I describe the rest of the meet). Please enjoy her beam routine here! I didn't catch the salute to the judges because I was sitting so far away, I couldn't tell for sure who was up!!

The 2nd event of the day was floor! I know after the last meet, Sophia was feeling pretty down on herself about the floor score she received! But I just kept reminding her of her fierce skills and abilities on the floor and that definitely helped!! She received a 9.500 and got 2nd place honors. Here is her beautiful floor routine! Pay special attention to her side leap - you won't be able to see it well because she is facing the judges table -- I will discuss this with the age group/awards later!!

Next up, vault! During warm-up, Sophia did some really strong vaults! I am pleased to say that when doing the actual vaults for the judges, she nailed both of them! She scored a 9.350 for a 3rd place honor! Fortunately for all of us, I was in a great location to be able to record both vaults - and here they are!!

1st Vault

2nd Vault

The final event for the night was bars! Sophia had a few stumbles during her warm-up vaults -- at least she had no crazy falls!! When she got up to do her routine for the judges, I thought (as well as the parents around me) that her routine looked really good! She did have a pause (0.3 deduction) before doing her squat on - but nothing that stood out to me as major flaw! Well, I can tell you that I was floored when her score was flashed -- 8.350! WTH!!! I was none too thrilled about that low score! No issue with her - just the judging! In fact, the highest bar score for our team was a 9.025 -- crazy!! The bar scoring seemed a little brutal to me (and the other parents)! I will say that, after talking with Ivan, I have a feeling that the girls will be doing much harder work on bars from now on!! So enough of that - Sophia placed 6th in her age group for bars!!

For the all-around, Sophia's total score was a 36.575 and she received 2nd place honors in her age group! The team placed 3rd with a 110.525. I am proud of Sophia and all of her teammates!!

Okay, I know you have been anxiously waiting to know about the awards/age groups, as well as why I wanted you to pay attention to her side leap on floor! Well, here it is! Every year at this meet, the judges pick a girl for each event to give out a special award to for various reasons! This year, Sophia received the Judges award for best side leap during her floor routine! What a great recognition of her beautiful talent!! This is, in fact, the second time Sophia has received a Judges award at a Brestyan's Invitational - she won a stuffed teddy bear in 2010 (at her first official Massachusetts meet) -- I just don't remember what it was for!

As for the age groups - there were 6 age groups with 70 girls competing in the session. This means that everyone was recognized. The girls received a small plaque with their names on them, with space to put their places in the events below! Here is a picture of Sophia's plaque with her event and all-around place - she was in the age group Four (because they just named them one, two, three, four, five, and six)

Please enjoy the following pictures of Sophia and her teammates during the meet and awards ceremony! I apologize they are not in order of when they were taken, I renamed them before I posted them here and they got re-arranged! Sorry! And, as always, thank you for checking in on Sophia! The next meet is February 1, 2013 - The Tim Daggett National Invitational in Springfield, MA!