Level 4 States . . .

I'll be up front and honest, States this year were not as good as last.  They were near my sister's house, which made the commute to the meet not too bad.  And, since she was in the afternoon session, we didn't have to spend the night before hand.

Z was completely excited for this meet--she was going to see her friend from last year's team and felt confident going in to the meet.  She was happy and in a great mood when we got there.

Our group started on bars.  I watched the routine and thought she did great.  She didn't fall, didn't hesitate and looked smooth.  Her score, however, was an 8.500.  Her coach told me later that her casts weren't high enough and that is what probably hurt her.

Beam was next.  Again, she didn't fall, but she almost did.  And it was just as another parent shouted out that she was doing great, but I think it broke her concentration.  She wound up with an 8.400.

Floor looked great.  She came away with a 9.100, not her highest score of the year, but definitely not bad.  Unfortunately, the competition was fierce and even a 9.100 only earned her a 9th place finish.

Vault was last.  The warm up looked good to me and her score was a 9.025.  That gave her second place!

All around she had a 35.025.  Again, not her best score of the year, but not her worst either.  She wound up in 9th place for all around.

I think she was fairly happy with her results.  She didn't cry afterwards and was happy for her friends.  The best part of the weekend was that we were able to go out to dinner and hang out with her teammate from last year.  We went to dinner at Spagetti Factory with her family and my sister, who had come to watch.  The evening was a lot of fun.

We then stayed at my sister's house so that I could meet up with a high school friend the next day.  His daughter is also a Level 4 gymnast, but three years older so she competed on Sunday.  It was fun to catch up with him and his family and watch his daughter compete.

Again, overall, I think Z is good with what happened.  She is now concentrating on learning skills so that hopefully she will move up to Level 5 for next year.  Crossing my fingers!