Every year, The Covergirl Classic serves as an amazingly big stage to for those up and coming elites. I wanted to showcase several girls who I think have the potential to amaze us all this season.
Elena Spengler, of Girls Co-Op is currently 11 years old and won this year's Challenge Competition for the HOPES 11 division. Her score was nearly seven points ahead of the second place winner! She's still going to need some upgrades is she wants to be competitive in the elite field, but she's definitely one to watch. Earlier in the season, Elena scored a 14.4 on beam, which would have earned her 5th place in the junior division of Championships.
(GymDivas.us)
Wesley Stephenson was a HOPES competitor this season who earned the silver medal at the American Classic in her division. She comes from Legacy Elite, which of course, produced both the "Caquatti" and Anna Li. She currently holds the Silver Medal from the Level 9 Easterns Jr. 1 Division in the All Around. Her vault, which I believe was a Yurchenko Full, really stood out to me. Wesley will need to make quite a few upgrades in order to make a big splash on the elite scene, but seeing as she said that she didn't begin to train for HOPES until after her JO Season ended, she's got fantastic potential.
(Property of USAG)
Alexandra McMurtry is the current reigning Level 10 Jr. A All Around Champion. While I'm not sure if she's announced that she's trying for Elite status, I'd be incredibly surprised if she chose not to. For what it's worth, every Jr. A National Champion has gone on to the Visa National Championships since at least 2005. Alexandra's known for her performances on vault where she performs a clean DTY (which earned a 9.95 at JO Nationals) and on floor where she's capable of a full in. Regardless of whether or not she goes elite, Alexandra McMurtry is a name to remember.
Who am I forgetting? Are there more up and coming Elites that I should blog about? Let me know in the comments!
In this afternoon's All Around Final, American Bridgette Caquatto took the gold medal to continue on the umpteen year streak of Americans winning the All Around. Ana Sofia Gomez took the Silver, Kristina Vaculik the bronze. What I really enjoyed about this all around was the vast variety of strengths amongst the leaders. First Place Caquatto lead on Bars while Gomez's struggled on bars and hit beam.
(Grace Chiu)
Peng Peng Lee caused a little bit of an upset when botched her full twisting Pak Salto, smacked her foot and only got a 12.9 on bars (vs. 14.275 in Prelims). Her prelims bars score in finals would have earned her the gold by less than a tenth.
Most importantly, I LOVED the wonderful sportsmanship that the competitors showed. I adored everything from US Coach Jiani Wu congratulating Peng Peng on a strong floor routine to all 3 of the girls on the podium smiling (isn't it sad when that's an accomplishment?).
