Tag: Brenna Dowell

Secret Surprises, A Look At Senior Podium Training and Upgrades

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In many ways, the Secret US Classics can be one of the most exciting meets of the year. It is the time when we see impressive upgrades, gymnast debuts and begin to really get an idea of the overall picture for the US women’s team. It is also a meet where anything can happen, as the girls routines are not yet polished and perfected. This year boasts an extra level of excitement with the return of many beloved gymnasts, upgrades in unexpected places and the place in the Olympic cycle where gymnastics fans can begin to see glimpses of next year’s Olympic team.

“The energy in the arena was intense,” said gymnastics photographer Christy Linder. Gone were the smiles and casual jokes, instead the girls had stoic, focused expressions. And while it is still early in the lead up to the selection of the world and ultimately the Olympic team, the intensity of the competition is beginning to show. With just over a year to go, everyone has Rio on their mind.

“Classics is always really important. It is the meet right before championships, so it allows you to see where you are and it allows you to try out your new skills… and to see if it is still worth it to push for the new skills, because after this meet you can’t really try anything new at championships or world championships,” said Aly Raisman in an interview with USA Gymnastics after podium training. Raisman is trying out a new skill on floor, adding a front tuck after her incredibly difficult pike double arabian in her second tumbling pass. “That’s still something relatively new, adding it into the floor routine, so hopefully tomorrow it will go well.”

And Raisman is not alone. In 2012 the USA seemed like an amanar factory. However, the number of gymnasts performing this high scoring vault consistently has diminished to just one – Simone Biles. Returning gymnasts Gabby Douglas, Raisman and Brenna Dowell all competed the amanar previously. Bailie Key is also training this vault. But the only person to actually show it in podium training today was Maggie Nichols. Welcome to the amanar club Maggie!

Speaking of Simone Biles, though she already has the most difficulty in the world by far, she is always pushing herself for more. Biles showed off two new skills on beam. “I added a Barani on beam [front tuck with a half twist] and a front pike… and then I got a new floor routine, so I am excited about that… and then I was supposed to compete a Cheng on vault, but that’s not going to happen, so hopefully for P&G’s,” said Biles in her post podium training interview. Biles also added a full twisting double layout on floor at Jesolo earlier this year and will be competing that along with a brand new floor routine.

Kyla Ross has spent this year focusing on bar upgrades. “I’ve been working hard to be able to compete a more difficult routine,” said Ross. She debuted a Bhardwaj (full twisting pak, a transition flip from the high to low bar) during podium training and also a new double front dismount. She has also changed some of her connections on beam. However, bars and beam are all we will see tomorrow as she won’t be competing all-around. “Unfortunately I am not going to do the all around this weekend because I hurt my heel a little bit, but I am hoping to go back after this competition and train hard for P&G’s.”

Bailie Key will not let her US senior debut come and go without upgrades of her own. “Training has been going really well. I am excited to compete here as a senior at the Secret Classic, and I thought training here, podium training, went really good too. I am most excited for floor because that is my big upgrade. I am putting a double layout in and moving my other passes back,” said Key. Along with her upgrade, Key also brings a brand new floor routine of her own.

Gabby Douglas is excited to be competing again, but will wait to unveil her new upgrades until P&G National Championships. “I’ve been working on a little bit of upgrades, which you guys will see at P&G’s, and being consistent and patient,” said Douglas after podium training. She knows that to make another Olympic team, she is going to have to give it her all. “We have so many good girls, all fighting for that spot and the competition is more dynamic… all the gymnasts, especially me, are going to have to pull out the best of the best. Especially with Simone. We’re gonna all have to bring out our best skills.” Douglas gave us a preview, showing off her new floor routine.

In addition to the upgrade frenzy were a number of familiar faces making their way back into the elite scene. Brenna Dowell, Polina Shchennikova and Sabrina Vega are all returning to elite gymnastics. Dowell just took a short hiatus to try her hand at college gymnastics. After a successful freshman year, she showed up to podium training looking better than ever on bars. Shchennikova showed off her gorgeous lines and flexibility on beam and bars, reminding everyone why she has been one that always catches your eye. Vega has been out since the 2012 Olympic Trials and is looking to begin her journey back into competition this weekend.

2014 World Champions MyKayla Skinner, Alyssa Baumann, Ashton Locklear and Madison Kocian are all out to prove that they are still in the running this year, even with the return of so many other gymnasts. Kocian and Locklear are both coming off of injuries as well, and will be looking to show that they are fit and ready to go. Standout junior Nia Dennis will be making her senior debut, looking to make a place for herself as well.

All in all, the gymnasts everyone expected to look great, do. And the gymnasts we have been wondering about- look great as well.  This year, more than any before, seems to be an embarrassment of riches. Let the fun begin.

Brenna Dowell Returns to Elite Gymnastics.

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Brenna Dowell at the 2014 P&G National Championships. Photo by John Cheng via USA Gymnastics.

Brenna Dowell has some unfinished business to take care of. After finding herself the alternate on the World Championship team in 2013, Dowell trained towards 2014. However a round of injuries and setbacks left her just short of her goals once again, when she was named the non-traveling alternate for the 2014 World Championship team. Rather than continue to train towards future world teams and the 2016 Olympics, Dowell decided to retire as an elite gymnast and begin her college career.

Going from elite in October 2014 to NCAA in January of 2015, Dowell had a very successful freshman year at the University of Oklahoma. She was a regular in the lineup for the Sooners on VT, UB and FX. She ended the season as the 2015 runner up on floor, the Big-12 Floor champion and the Big-12 Newcomer of the Year.

According to SoonerSports.com, Oklahoma’s head coach K.J. Kindler announced this week that Dowell has decided to take a break from her NCAA career. She will defer for a year to return to elite gymnastics and chase her dreams for a place on the 2015 World Championship team.  “This decision was the toughest choice I have ever made,” Dowell said to Soonersports.com. “My family and I prayed about it a lot, and I just felt like I had some unfinished business in the elite world.”

Dowell is a strong all-around gymnast, and brings a high level of difficulty to vault and bars. With the additions of Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, as well as new senior Bailie Key to an already intensely competitive elite environment, Dowell has her work cut out for her. But it is work that she seems ready to do in order to pursue her dreams.

“We know that this was a very difficult decision for Brenna, but at the end of the day it came down to chasing that dream,” Kindler said. “We want Brenna to have no regrets and that means pursuing this opportunity to compete for the United States at the highest level in this Olympic year. We will be cheering loud for her from Norman and will look forward to her return to Oklahoma in the fall of 2016.”

No word has been released yet as to when Dowell will return to national team training camps or compete for the first time in 2015. The 2015 World Gymnastics Championships are Oct. 23 to Nov. 1, in Glasgow, Scotland.

U.S. Senior National Champions and National Team

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Simone Biles made what everyone already knows official. At this point in USA gymnastics, she is in a league of her own. She decisively won back to back U.S. National Championship titles, this time by over four points – with a fall. Over a two day competition, she looked incredibly strong, relaxed and consistent until the very end of her beam routine where she fell. And when you are so far ahead that you are competing with yourself, that is frustrating. But on the scoreboard it hardly mattered. Biles also walked away with the national title on floor and vault.

Kyla Ross won her second silver national all-around title, as well as her second national beam title. Ross is also in a league of her own this year firmly capturing the silver despite two uncharacteristic falls on night one. Ross proved to everyone that she is indeed human on the first day of competition with a fall on floor and on bars. Her almost inhuman consistency and perfection are marveled at around the world, and they returned in full force on night two, where she earned the highest execution score total. 

Maggie Nichols, the only gymnast on the medal podium to hit eight for eight routines, took the bronze. At this championship, Nichols put an exclamation point on her statement from the U.S. Secret Classics. She is a consistent all-around gymnast who can be depended upon to hit on any event. She also won the bronze on bars, an important event in USA gymnastics.

Apart from the three all-arounders, Ashton Locklear made quite a splash at this competition, easily winning the uneven bars national title. Between the national championships and classics earlier this month, she has posted the highest bar’s scores in the world this year with her incredibly clean and difficult bar routine. 

The top six all-around gymnasts were automatically added to the national team. Additionally, four more gymnasts who were named to the Pan American Games team were also added. Ross and Biles, who have loads of international experience were left off the team, letting other gymnasts gain much needed international competition experience. 

U.S. Senior National Team

Alyssa Baumann, Plano, Texas/WOGA, Simone Biles, Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre, Madison Desch, Blue Springs, Mo./GAGE, Brenna Dowell, Odessa, Mo./GAGE, Amelia Hundley, Fairfield, Ohio/Cincinnati Gymnastics, Madison Kocian, Dallas/WOGA, Ashton Locklear, Huntersville, N.C./Everest Gymnastics, Maggie Nichols, Little Canada, Minn./Twin City Twisters, Kyla Ross, Aliso Viejo, Calif./Gym-Max and MyKayla Skinner, Gilbert, Ariz./Desert Lights.

The gymnasts leaving on a bus on Sunday to Canada to represent the USA at the Pan American Games are Baumann, Desch, Hundley, Kocian, Locklear, Nichols and Skinner.

The results for the all-around top six and the even medalists are as follows.

All-Around

  1. Simone Biles, Spring, Texas, 122.550
  2. Kyla Ross, Aliso Viejo, Calif., 118.300
  3. Maggie Nichols, Little Canada, Minn., 117.900
  4. Alyssa Baumann, Plano, Texas, 116.100
  5. MyKayla Skinner, Gilbert, Ariz., 115.450
  6. Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 112.200

Vault

  1. Simone Biles, Spring, Texas, 31.025
  2. MyKayla Skinner, Gilbert, Ariz., 30.225

 Uneven Bars

  1. Ashton Locklear, Hamlet, N.C., 31.050
  2. Madison Kocian, Dallas, Texas, 30.750
  3. Maggie Nichols, Little Canada, Minn., 29.400

Balance Beam

  1. Kyla Ross, Aliso Viejo, Calif., 30.550
  2. Simone Biles, Spring, Texas, 30.300
  3. Alyssa Baumann, Plano, Texas, 30.300

Floor Exercise

  1. Simone Biles, Spring, Texas, 31.150
  2. MyKayla Skinner, Gilbert, Ariz., 30.000
  3. Maggie Nichols, Little Canada, Minn., 29.000

2014 US Classics Senior Recap with Results and Videos

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The 2014 U.S. Classics went surprisingly without a lot of surprises for this point in the Olympic cycle and in the year. A few gymnasts brought new upgrades, but it was not crash after crash or fall after fall as it can sometimes be. Adding some of the future junior stars to the senior session was a great success, as it let many fans who don’t follow gymnastics as closely start to get to know some of the players on the road to Rio. Plus, they are just so cute! Let’s start with the seniors however.

Simone Biles of World Champions Centre began her bid to defend her World All-Around title with a bang. The Secret US Classics are just a warm up meet for the rest of the season. But Biles looked ready to win another all-around and floor title tonight. Competing what is probably the best floor routine she has ever done, she started the night with a whopping 15.8. That score includes a US only sticking bonus which added .2 to her score. She went on to rock a powerful first vault and managed to hold on to her second vault. She had a little rough start on bars, but came through with a great routine. She ended the night with a solid beam routine and easily won the all-around with a 61.7.

Simone Biles – Floor – 15.8

Simone Biles – Vault – 15.9

Simone Biles – Bars –  14.75

Simone Biles – Beam – 15.25

Kyla Ross of Gym-Max continues to be an important player in the world of US gymnastics. The undeniable team leader, she is one everyone can count on both on and off the floor. She started the evening by adding a new upgrade to her floor routine. It was actually nice to see Ross take a risk of competing something that is not yet perfect. That is exactly what the US Classics are for, but it left her with a slightly lower score than usual. Ross moved on to vault, where she competed her beautiful DTY and stuck the landing. A back injury earlier in the season has kept Ross from competing at as high of a difficulty level on bars as she has the last two years, but she holds on to every point with beautiful execution. A solid, steady, quintessential Ross beam routine easily clinched the silver for her, and helped her to break that 60 all-around score barrier with a 60.05

Kyla Ross – Floor – 14.6

Kyla Ross – Vault –  15.2

Kyla Ross – Bars – 15.0

Kyla Ross – Beam – 15.25

Maggie Nichols of Twin City Twisters took third with a 57.6. Nichols was steady on all four events, taking advantage of other athletes falls and falters. She looked clean and confident and competed very well.

Maggie Nichols Bars – 14.7

Maggie Nichols – Beam – 14.1

Maggie Nichols Floor – 14.3

Maggie Nichols Vault – 14.5

Rachel Gowey of Chow’s Gymnastics was very impressive. Making her senior elite debut at these Classics after being out for a year due to injury, Gowey made a splash. Beautiful long lines and the ever clean form that is the mark of all of Chow’s gymnasts made her a standout, and her difficulty on top of that make her a strong contender for this years world’s team. She fell on her amanar, but made enough of them during training that it would seem she will have the vault in time.

Rachel Gowey – Beam- 14.85

Rachel Gowey – Floor – 14.15

Rachel Gowey – Vault – 13.85

Rachel Gowey – Bars –

not yet uploaded

Amelia Hundley of Cincinnati Gymnastics was a junior standout, and her senior debut has been long awaited. So it was a dissapointment to many fans that she was not shown during the broadcast at all. Hundley is a steady athlete on all four event, but really shines on floor. The calm girl becomes an animated performer.

Amelia Hundley – Floor – 14.25

Amelia Hundley – Vault- 13.9

Amelia Hundley – Bars – 13.8

Amelia Hundley – Beam – 13.5

 

Ashton Locklear of Everest Gymnastics missed most of last year with injuries. However, her incredibly clean lines and beautiful technique stood out clearly on bars. Her bars were some of the most impressive gymnastics of podium training, and brought in a huge score during the competition.

Ashton Locklear – Bars – 15.7

 

Madison Kocian of WOGA began the competition first up on her best even. Kocian has good all-around potential, but her real spot on a world’s team will come on bars. She did not disappoint, with a clean, difficult, fluid bar routine. However she fell off the beam and then scratched the rest of the meet sitting on the sidelines with ice on her ankle. Fans are hoping it’s nothing serious as it was the same ankle that kept her out of competition last year.

Madison Kocian – Bars- 15.4

 

MyKayla Skinner of Desert Lights Gymnastics has been working hard to improve her execution, form and artistry. Though she has a ways to go, you can definitely see the progress. Known as the daredevil of the US, she brings incredibly difficult skills to the table. However a fall on floor and lower execution scores all around left her out of the running for the podium.

MyKayla Skinner – Floor – 13.4

MyKayla Skinner – Vault – 15.0

MyKayla Skinner – Beam –

Brenna Dowell of GAGE sprained her ankle a few weeks ago and only planned to compete bars at this competition.

Brenna Dowell – Bars – 11.2

Check out the full results and watch all the routines in HD!

 

 

To Defer or Not to Defer: Brenna Dowell and Elizabeth Price

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Photo by Elizabeth Price via Instagram
Photo by Elizabeth Price via Instagram

Coming off of a great performance at the AT&T American Cup, Brenna Dowell and Elizabeth Price look to the future. They are both committed to collegiate gymnastics and were slated to begin competing NCAA this fall. With a great showing at the American Cup, they are both strong contenders for the 2014 World Championship team. But will they still be competing elite in the fall to even make a go of it?

Price is committed to Stanford. In January, she told Allie of Double Double Gym Blog that she had not yet decided if she would defer her scholarship until 2015.

Stanford was one of my top choices for college ever since I started looking at schools, and I knew gymnasts that went there who told me great things about the school, so I knew a lot about Stanford even before I went to visit. I decided to go there because I felt that Stanford is a great academic institution with a great gymnastics team. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’m going to defer until 2015, but I still have time to think about it and make that decision later.

In the interview, Price went on to say that her goals for 2014 were to compete in more international meets, including another World Cup meet. After attaining her goal of competing in another World Cup so soon in the 2014 season, Price seems to have set her sights higher. In a post meet interview after the AT&T American Cup, she told Andrea Joyce of NBC, “I know a lot of great gymnasts have won this competition, so it is great to say that I am one of those girls. Hopefully I can soon say that I have won even bigger meets than this one.”

That being said, Price is not yet ready to make a decision about deferring. In the mixed zone, she told Gymnastike, “I haven’t decided whether I am going this fall or deferring a year or whatever, but I still have a lot of time to make that decision.”

Brenna Dowell is committed to the University of Oklahoma. She talked about her college choice with Arabian Punch Front.

I didn’t want to go too far from home. I wanted it to be driving distance so I visited a few schools that were close. I really like KJ and Lou. They were really nice and they made me feel like they really wanted to me to be on their team. I really liked the atmosphere and, from the people who I know that go there, I heard nothing but good things about it so I’m really excited to go.

Unlike Price, Dowell has made her decision on deferring. Following the American Cup, she told Gymnastike, “I am going to defer this year and try for the 2014 World Team.”

What she hasn’t decided is how long she will defer. According to Arabian Punch Front, her plans are to take it one step at a time. “Long term – I’m just taking it one year at a time and then I’ll decide what to do once it comes around. It’s my senior year this year. I’m going to defer college to try for Worlds this year and then I’ll decide what to do next year. 2016, yeah, I’m not sure yet.”

That seems like a good plan in a sport as precarious as gymnastics and in a country where it is harder to make an World or Olympic team than it is to medal once you are there.

American Cup Wrap Up

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As the 2014 American Cup get’s started, the energy is high and people are excited. At this point in the quadrennium, the tension around winning this event is absent and everyone is having fun.The lights dim, strobe lights fill the arena and we start with a little song and dance.The gymnasts march in and things start to get serious.

Brenna Dowell – USA Photo by John Cheng, USA Gymnastics

As expected, the American’s dominated on vault. Neither Elizabeth Price or Brenna Dowell brought their best vault, but they still shot ahead of the pack with their powerful amanars. Behind them was Giulia Steingruber with a nice rudi (the vault Alicia Sacramone used to do) and Victoria Moors with a DTY. The rest of the field had pretty low start values.

Elizabeth Price – USA Photo by John Cheng, USA Gymnastics

 

Next up, uneven bars. Brenna Dowell absolutely rocked bars, doing her crazy Tweddle+Ezhova combination better than I have ever seen it. In warm up she had bent legs and crazy form, but she did straight legs and feet together! The crowd went nuts. Carlotta Ferlito and Sophie Scheder both had a really great swinging set of bars. Carlotta had some form breaks and Sophie got a little off in her routine, but they both delivered cleanly.  Victoria Moors and Vanessa Ferrari have  both improved so much on bars over the years! They had a few little form issues, but got through fairly well. Roxana Popa Nedelcu started off so strongly on bars but then slammed her feet on the mat on her pak (immediately after the little girl behind me said, wow no one has fallen on bars) and then couldn’t recover and had to jump off. Elizabeth flew so high on her release moves, and went clean on her bars with a stick to boot. She increased her lead coming out of the second rotation.

Elizabeth Price – USA Photo by John Cheng, USA Gymnastics

 

Brenna is first up on beam where she was cleaner than she has been in training. However lots of bobbles and starts and stops and a missed connection left her with only a 13.3. Giulia and Victoria both brought nice, steady routines. Victoria did her full-in dismount and ended with a NCAA style finish! Vanessa, who has looked so strong in warmups did not have her best routine. She did a back tuck in a series that normally is a layout and had a few other mistakes. Elizabeth Price is up next and delivered what was probably her best beam routine I have ever seen her do! She missed a few of her splits, but was rock solid on all her skills and ended with a stick. Carlotta started with a beautiful beam routine, one of the prettiest of the meet. But she falls on one of her combinations.

The top four have been in the exact same order since the first rotation, and even with such a low beam score for Brenna nothing changes. Elizabeth, Brenna, Giulia and Victoria. This line-up is full of great floor workers, so this is a rotation to sit back and enjoy.

Carlotta Ferlito – Italy Photo by John Cheng USA Gymnastics

Things get started with Carlotta, who looks beautiful on floor. She really gets the crowd going with her clappable music and her enthusiastic performance, She does a graceful, sassy routine. Sophie follows her, with beautiful jumps, leaps and turns, but a fall on her last pass. Next up is Vanessa, who is one of the best in the world on floor. She does a great routine. So wonderful to see her floor routine in person! Roxana flies high in her double layout and then gets what might have been some of the loudest cheers on the night with her whip whip tumbling pass. A very fun routine. Giulia looks so much cleaner to me on floor than at worlds. She does a great routine as well.

Elizabeth is next and does a solid routine. She flies high, has solid landings and hits everything. I like this routine better than her previous one, but she still has some room to grow on the performance and dance side of floor. Brenna has such great tumbling skills and beautiful presentation. She is so beautiful on floor, but has a big hop on her first pass and lands out of bounds on her second pass. However, it is just enough to take second.

And we finish out the night with what I flew across the country for – Victoria Moors on floor. Victoria has quite a pike in her double twisting double layout and lands it out of bounds. But it is awesome to see! The rest of her routine is enchanting, every nuance of music used perfectly. The crowd was actually quiet – mesmerized I think. What a great ending to the meet!

Victoria Moors – Canada Photo by John Cheng USA Gymnastics

There was a great presentation of medals and of World Cup standings at the end of the meet to wrap up the 2014 AT&T American Cup.

Sam Mikulak and Elizabeth Price Photo by John Cheng USA Gymnastics

1. Elizabeth Price 59.966
2. Brenna Dowell 57.532
3. Giulia Steingruber 57.332
4. Victoria Moors 56.898
5. Vanessa Ferrari 56.766
6. Roxana Popa 54.865
7. Sophie Scheder 54.331
8. Carlotta Ferlito 53.632

Check out these links for more info.

Results
Videos of Routines
NBC Broadcast
USAG Livestream
Photo Gallery

Photos and videos from USA Gymnastics

American Cup AA Competition Looks to be Fierce

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With Simone Biles, Kyla Ross and Larissa Iordache all out of the American Cup due to injury, the all around competition looks to be much more wide open – and much more even than in recent years. Though I am sad not to see these amazing girls compete, it definitely sets us up for a great all around competition.

Elizabeth Price (Ebee) tweeted that they (her and Brenna Dowell) were “Ready to Go.”

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Ready to go!!!

A post shared by Elizabeth Ebee Price (@eberjeebers) on

Elizabeth Price has won three world cup events in the past two years. Brenna McDowell has yet to be tested on this type of international stage, but she has the goods if she delivers. The two Americans both have the advantage with their awesome Amanars on vault. But the international field is all looking very good and have all been tested on the world stage!

Vanessa Ferrari of Italy just keeps getting better with age. She came in sixth at the 2013 World Championships and has looked good here. Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland was just after her in 7th at Worlds. The next three girls were all packed together at Worlds. Victoria Moors of Canada in10th, Carlotta Ferlito of Italy in 11th and Roxana Popa Nedelcu of Spain in 12th. Rounding out the field is Sophie Scheder of Germany.

Things to watch for:

Victoria Moors on floor! I cannot wait to see this live! Victoria is one of my all time favorite floor workers, and with her double double layout, she will be hard to beat on floor if she lands on her feet. She has also brought in some upgrades on beam. Brenna and Elizabeth on vault. Sophie on bars. Vanessa on floor. Carlotta on beam.

And though I don’t write about men’s much…. you CANNOT miss Fabian Hambuechen on High Bar!

This looks to be a GREAT American Cup competition even without the prominent stars.

And here we go! The women are starting vault!

Senior National Champions

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With such a small field, we were able to see each and every gymnast compete at this senior national championships. This was such a treat! Here are all the national champions, the best routines on each event, and your new national team. All photos and videos are from USA Gymnastics.

Vault

1. McKayla Maroney

2. Simone Biles

3. MyKayla Skinner

Without a doubt, McKayla’s amanar on day 2 was the highlight of vault. A 9.7 execution score for a 16.0.

Bars

1. Kyla Ross 30.95

2. Simone Biles 28.95

3. Brenna Dowell 28.75

Kyla’s routine the first night scored the highest of the meet, a 15.5. Her bars are just breathtaking.

Beam

1. Kyla Ross 29.95

2. Simone Biles 29.9

3. Kennedy Baker 28.95

Kyla Ross needed a 15.45 to tie Simone in the final routine of the night. A big wobble kept her from it, but she still put up an awesome 15.2.

Floor

1. McKayla Maroney 30.1

2. Simone Biles 30.0

3. MyKayla Skinner 29.75

McKayla Maroney is making the case to be on the world team as a floor specialist as well. Three stuck passes, gorgeous turns and leaps, performed her heart out… THAT was a floor routine. 9.15 execution on floor…

All Around

1. Simone Biles 120.45

2. Kyla Ross 120.25

3. Brenna Dowell 116.55

Your Senior National Team

Simone Biles

Kyla Ross

Brenna Dowell

Peyton Ernst

Maggie Nichols

MyKayla Skinner

Kennedy Baker

Elizabeth Price

McKayla Maroney

Madison Kocian

Lexie Priessman

2013 Secret U.S. Classic Senior All-Around Champions

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The Queen of Clean Reigns at Classics – Kyla Ross

Kyla just gets better with age. As you would expect, her time at the Olympics has given her maturity and depth that shows in her gymnastics. Especially in her floor routine. She used to just go from pose to pose. At Classics, she seemed to FEEL the music and danced beautifully. With a watered down beam routine and an uncharacteristic fall on floor, she still took the title.

Beauty and Elegance Win the Day – Peyton Ernst

Peyton was a bit of a surprise, but she came through with four solid routines all done with beauty and elegance. She is a joy to watch perform and will be one to watch for sure at Nationals.

Taking Risks has Rewards – Brenna Dowell

Brenna has upgraded everywhere, and it was really fun to see her compete everything. She has some cleaning up to do to make her execution match her difficulty, but she did great for her first debut of so many difficult skills.