Sophia's Gymnastics Journey: 2013 Elite local meet

Hello friends and family! Sorry this has taken so long to post! This past week has been crazy getting ready for Christmas and the kids being out of school for 2 weeks!! Anyways, Sophia's gym hosted an in house meet on December 15th. The girls from CGA (Connecticut Gymnastics Academy) were invited to the meet - which is always awesome because Sophia loves coach Brock and is friends with many of the girls from the gym!! Of course, the night before, there was a decent snow storm -- we weren't even sure if the meet would still be held! Fortunately, the roads were decent and the coaches pushed the start time back an hour to account for the cruddy weather!!
This meet was for all of the optional team -- levels 7-10! I thought this was pretty cool, since we don't get to see the other levels compete much (mainly just practice in the gym)! The level 7 girls started out on Vault! Sophia performed 2 nice looking vaults and received a score of 9.000 - she didn't place in her age group! Oh well! I didn't record the vaults -- but I did get a few pretty good pictures!!

The next event was Bars! Sophia received 8.750 as her score and placed 4th in her age group (10-11 year olds -- the groups were based on what their age will be at the time of states in March). Here is a picture of her handstand on the high bar -- and then the video of her bar routine!!

The 3rd event of the day was Floor! I know, I know -- this is not Olympic order! The change had to do with the fact that there were only 4 judges at the meet -- 2 judges judged vault and floor and 2 judges judged beam and bars! Onto how Sophia did on her floor routine! After plenty of hard work on the areas that she needed to polish, Sophia did a beautiful floor routine! She received a 9.375 and placed 3rd in her age group! I did record the routine and will post it here -- but let me forewarn you, it is blurry! As I was trying to get the camera focused on her, I accidentally snapped a picture (pushed down too hard on the button!) and then she got into position to start, so I didn't get the chance to focus!! Sorry! I will say that it was a very nice routine!!

The final event for the meet was Beam! Sophia performed a lovely beam - no falls or major wobbles -- WOOHOO!! Her score was 9.225 and she placed 3rd in the age group! I recorded the routine - but again, I messed up with the focus so the video is blurry! You can clearly see Coach Jacqui and the girls on the floor doing their stuff in the video -- but Sophia and the beam are blurry! Sorry! I will be better prepared at the next meet!!! Enjoy!

As you can see from the pictures, videos and scores, Sophia had a pretty good meet! Her All-Around was 36.350 and she placed 3rd in her age group! The final team score was 111.675 -- since it was only the Elite team and CGA, there was no team award!

As always, I am very proud of Sophia! She is fiercely dedicated and focused and works so hard in the gym every day!! Thank you so much for your continued interest and support of Sophia as she does the thing she loves most -- gymnastics!! Her next meet is the Brestyan's Invitational in January!!