Wow, where has the time gone? I could have sworn that I had posted about State Competition, but apparently I didn't. A lot has happened since then, so I'll start with the State Competition experience itself.
State Competition was held approximately four hours from our house. It definitely involved an overnight stay. Although we had initially booked a hotel at the "host" hotel, when we tried to cancel the second night, once we knew we only needed one, they were going to double our rate. So we canceled completely and booked at another location--same distance, cheaper and included free breakfast. Win, win, win!
After getting a fairly good night's sleep (nerves and excitement caused some delay in falling asleep), we went down to have breakfast. It was obvious that plenty of other competitors chose to stay there as well as there were many, many gymnasts eating breakfast. We sat down next to one girl, who was a little older than Z and began talking. It turns out this girl had competed at States the year before and was giving us some insight. Z liked talking to someone who had already been there, done that, so to speak. The girl asked what Z's goals were, and she said that she wanted to not fall off the beam and score a 9.0 on all events.
Then, time to head to the competition venue. We got there before her coaches and waited. Warming up was fun and the girls were all excited to be at State. We had four girls competing in the same session, so they had someone with them and were able to relax a bit.
I was happy that they were given the traditional rotation, starting on vault. Vault has been a bit of an enigma for Z. While she typically does well, there were at least two competitions where her first vault was basically scrapped because of a fall. This time, there was no fall, no falter and she scored a 9.100. I was so happy for her. She seemed thrilled!
Next off to bars. Bars has been one of her better events this season. She loves it and always seems to do well. State was no different. She looked really good with a 9.175 score.
Beam was my biggest concern for Z. She has only had one meet where she did really well and only two where she didn't fall. I was hoping that she would do well, and not fall. She was looking really strong and then at the very end seemed to rush things. It turns out that she heard the time buzzer and rushed to get off the beam. She didn't fall and scored an 8.950. Not the 9.0 that she wanted, but she was still really happy.
Floor was her final event. This has normally been her strongest event and State was no different. She had a big extra jump at the end of her back handspring but otherwise looked great. Her score of a 9.325 showed. She had an overall all-around score of 36.550. Her highest of the season. That is definitely the way to finish out a season.
When it came time for awards, we were hopeful that she would do well and knew she would medal on floor and hopefully on bars. It turns out that she received a medal on every event: 9th on vault, 6th on bars, 7th on beam and a tie for 2nd on floor (she missed 1st by 0.025 points). She ended up with 4th place in all-around. This from a girl who had been told by the coach at her old gym that she wasn't ready to compete at that level. I guess she was wrong.
Z was completely stoked about the whole experience. She told me that her actual goals were to not fall off the beam and to get a medal on every event. She met and exceeded her goals in my opinion.
Having finished what we considered to be a great season, our next milestone would be to see if her coach felt that she was ready to move up to Level 4 for next season. As I previously posted, she did in fact, get promoted. She was one of only five who did, although there have been two others that have been continuing to try.
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