With only 5 competing gymnasts, the Senior Division is quite a bit smaller than its Junior counterpart.
Casey Jo Magee (Western Michigan? Independent?) is by far the most experienced gymnast in the division. She's the only gymnast in the division old enough to have a driver's license, let alone a college degree! After a strong career at the University of Arkansas, Magee made the decision to try to qualify as an elite. Not only did Magee qualify, but she's been impressing fans with her phenomenal beam set.
Kennedy Baker (Texas Dreams), a current Senior National Team Member, is also set to compete. She is, in my opinion, the most under appreciated gymnast in the country, and is excellent on bars. Her flair on floor consistently makes me smile.
Property of Jessica Frankl
Fresh off of winning the WOGA Classic, Mackenzie Brannan (Capital), seems to have adjusted well to growing a few inches in the off season. Although Mack's never been one to compete "cutesy" routines, this year, she seems more mature than ever. Watch for her gorgeous lines and beautifully stuck tumbling passes.
Abby Milliet (pictured right) of Denton has always been one of those gymnasts whose name I've known, but I've never really paid much attention to. After watching a few of her routines, I wish I had. Abby won last year's American Classic as a junior and her strongest events are floor and vault.
Ericha Fassbender (Stars) was on the 2010-2011 Jr. National Team and was the 2010 Top Gym UB Champion. Ericha has big skills that she sometimes struggles with, but when she hits, she's fabulous. I'm personally a fan of her beam routine.
The USAG release says that Claire Hammen also will compete, but she competed today and didn't score high enough to qualify. I'm not sure what's up with that.
I also wanted to mention that 7 juniors not mentioned yesterday qualified based on today's scores.
Property of USAG
1. Nica Hults (Texas Dreams) - If you've been under a rock, watch her beam set tomorrow! 2. Maggie Nichols (Twisters) - Won Vault today, following teammate Jessie DeZiel? 3. Lauren Hernandez (Monmouth) - On the National Team Training Squad, Strong BB & FX 4. Jessica Wang (Winners) - Qualified to Classics last year, strongest event is UB 5. Alexis Beucler (CGA) - "Poof", the newest one of MLT's prodigies, decent AA 6. Taylor Lawson (Parkettes) - Nice Lines, doesn't seem to be "chucking" like many Parkettes 7. Ashton Kim (Texas Dreams) - This poor girl has been injured too long. She's fab though.
Pac Rims concluded last Saturday with the American Women earning every gold with the exception of Senior Vault, which no one attempted to earn. (Do any of those girls even have a second Vault?) Arguably, the biggest disappointment of the meet was Victoria Moors of Canada, who many expected to contend for floor gold, who struggled on her final two passes. You can check out USAG Coverage of both Junior and Senior Event Finals on Youtube.
Spanny tells us "How (she) Learned to Dougie"
Spanny Tampson posted a remarkable tribute this week to Gabrielle Douglas. If you haven't read it yet, you should certainly check it out.
Property of Ryan Schulz
Kamerin Moore to Nebraska, Kiana Winston to Alabama The Recruiting Class of 2014 lost two high profile recruits after both Kamerin Moore of Twistars and Kiana Winston of Texas Dreams committed to Division I schools. McKenzie Wofford of 2014 also previously committed to Oklahoma, and Chanen Raygoza to Georgia, but many 2014 recruits remain uncommitted.
Casey Jo Magee Continues to Upgrade
Casey Jo Magee, who Marta seemed to count out for quite a while has been making major upgrades and has the Facebook Videos to prove it. Most impressively, she's got a roundoff-full-beat jump combo on beam. CJM, who looks as fit as ever, could legitimately factor in to this Olympic Picture.
Aliya Mustafina takes Russian Championship Not shockingly, with Komova out due to an ankle injury and the reigning champion Dementyeva home sick with tonsillitis, Mustafina took the All Around Gold Medal at the Russian Championships. Long time veteran Afansnasyeva and first year senior Grishina earned silver and bronze respectively. Kristina Goryunova, who is unable to compete in London due to testing positive for illegal substances earlier this quad, topped the beam rankings with a 14.933.
Dare Maxwell Returns to Dynamo
Property of Gym Examiner
After Sara Maxwell posted videos of her daughter Dare at Level 10 Oklahoma States, I asked around and discovered that Dare returned home about two weeks ago to train at Dynamo. I've been reassured that although she'll compete Level 10 this season, she will compete both Level 10 and Elite Bars and Beam next year. She's already been working on upgrades on those two events. No word on the reason for Dare's move.
Double Front brings fundraiser to a close
Kristal Bolden of Double Front gained a press pass to this years European Championship and is still looking to raise a little bit of money to get there. If you can help at all and enjoy top notch blog coverage, please help support her!
Cottubus Qualifiers
The Cottubus Cup is underway and qualifications have concluded. Big names on the women's side include Brittany Rogers and Dominique Pegg of Canada who are both returning from injury, He Kexin and Elisabeth Seitz on Bars and Diana Chelaru who qualified to three event finals.
Ellie Black of Canada is a BAMF
I got a link on Twitter showing "Canadian Olympic Hopeful" Ellie Black's superb combo on beam. She's fairly good on Vault, Beam and Floor and could possibly factor into that picture. But with at least 12 Canadian girls with a legitimate shot, anything could happen.
NCAA Regionals
Property of UGA Gymnastics
Women's NCAA Conference Meets begin this weekend. Keep you eyes peeled on Twitter to see all of the fun unfold and check out College Gym Fans for links to results and live coverage.
As Get a Grip reported several weeks ago, Elite gymnast Casey Jo Magee moved from Capital Gymnastics in Texas to Western Michigan to train and work as an assistant coach!
Casey Jo's day of coaching and training provides for an interesting Day in the Life!
(Property of Razorback Photos)
8:15 AM: "Wake up, brush my teeth, and head to the kitchen. Every day I have my power smoothie (you can get my recipe on my website) and lately I’ve been having some sort of egg scramble with onions, bell peppers, spinach, and Canadian bacon. Sometimes with toast or an English muffin. I start a small pot of coffee while breakfast is in the works so it’s ready when my food is. Right now I’m drinking Marzipan flavored coffee, a World Market holiday seasonal. Although I think I like non-flavored better since I put a little creamer in it. Might have to ask my boyfriend Scott to mail me some Ruta Maya coffee from Austin." 9:15-9:45 AM: "By now I’m done eating with [the] dishes washed so I get my stuff together for practice. Fill up my sweet REI water bottle with Brita water (because the tap water here in Kalamazoo isn’t my favorite). Pull together a snack of sorts…string cheese and a tuna to-go or apple, baby carrots and hummus, sometimes leftovers from dinner the night before. Get dressed for gym and the semi-cold weather outside, which will soon be really cold and probably snowing. Here come the gloves, scarf, boots, and winter jacket!" 10 AM-12 PM: "Get to the gym and start warming up. Morning practice I’ll do one event hard and basics on another, switching between bars and beam. Now I’ll eat my snack as the girls start warming up for their workout." 12 PM-3 PM: "Western girls practice. With season approaching quickly I’ll be primarily coaching floor, paying special attention to the details like expression, leaps and jumps, and landings on passes. Although I really just move around to wherever I’m needed. Dave helps coach everything and wants me to shout out a correction or comment if I have one, no matter the event. Sara Kelly, the other assistant, works mostly with beam but she choreographed all the floor routines so she helps there as well." 2:30-5:15 PM: "Usually the last couple girls are finishing up their last event by 2:30 so I start warming up again for practice number two. Here I’ll do three events, as I alternate the days I flip vaults and tumble. On the days I tumble, I do uphill vault timers, and the days I flip vaults I do floor endurance and some basic tumbling. I’ll finish with some conditioning and stretching before I head home." 5:30 PM: "Home and tired. I take a shower and relax for a bit before I make myself some dinner." 6:30-7:30 PM: "Make and eat some dinner…I try to get a good source of lean protein, carbs, and veggies of some sort. Lately I’ve had rice and beans or spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad, or top a salad with sliced grilled chicken". 7:30-10 PMish: "I’ll ice a body part if it’s bothering me. Then most of my evenings are spent watching gymnastics videos, playing words with friends, surfing the Internet, and checking Facebook and Twitter. But now that I’m more settled into my apartment I plan to update my website more often. I also have been reading a lot lately. This summer I read the Hunger Games series, which was sad but so well written. So excited for the movie! And I just finished The Magicians. If anyone has any books or authors they love, please send them my way! I’m always looking for new books to read." 10 PMish: "I start getting ready for bed. I ... brush my teeth then wash my face and put on this awesome Burt’s Bees nighttime face lotion. So smooth! Then it is off to bed for me!" This schedule is what I’m doing this week because the Western team is in finals so their practices are quite a bit shorter and lighter. Once school starts for the spring semester in January however, my days will be a bit longer.
Former Arkansas Gymnast Casey Jo Magee has stated that she's leaving Capital in Texas, home of elites Mackenzie Brannan and Nicole Lehrmann.
She's moving to Michigan to train with a former coach Dave Kuzara who coached her in Arkansas and is now the head coach of Western Michigan University's gymnastics team. Magee will help assistant coach the team while continuing to pursue her own elite career.
About the move, Magee says, "[It] should be a fun experience. I'm pretty excited."
Casey Jo is a 4 time first team All American and a 2011 Visa National Qualifier. She's known for her signature triple turn on beam.
