Okay, so clearly this is just a tad late, but the end of my summer was just insane. Just going to post a few of my thoughts on Nationals and upcoming World Championships!!
JUNIORS
Polina Shchennikova, Veronica Hults, Nia Dennis, Laurie Hernandez
Bailie Key, Amelia Hundley, Norah Flatley, and Alyssa Baumann
Bailie Key had an amazing two days during the Championships to become the Junior National Champion. She scored in the 15+'s several times and became the Beam and Floor champion! She also had a beautiful vault night one that scored a 15.1. Bailie has beautifully elegant gymnastics, and she is a joy to watch. I cannot wait until she moves up to the Senior Elite level!
Lauren Hernandez ended up placing second, which is much improvement over last year's Nationals where she placed 21st! I love this girl, she is just explosive! She took home a silver on Bars and Floor Exercise and tied for bronze on Beam!!
Amelia Hundley placed third, taking the Uneven Bars title, and bronze on Floor. She scored consistently in the low to mid 14's except for her beam routine on night one, on which she fell to a 12.9.
Nia Dennis finished in fourth place and took silver on the vault. Norah Flatley finished fifth.
Brenna Dowell, Kyla Ross, Elizabeth Price, McKayla Maroney, Maggie
Nichols, Kennedy Baker, Madison Kocian, Peyton Ernst, Lexie Priessman,
Simone Biles, and MyKayla Skinner.
Simone Biles Gold, Kyla Ross Silver, Brenna Dowell Bronze.
I am so so so proud of Simone! I know that she was probably disappointed in herself after the meet she had at the Secret Classic, but I knew that she was capable of not only having an amazing meet, but winning the National Championship!! She was leading after night one by a close margin, and it stayed close between her and Kyla up until about the last rotation, when it was clear that Kyla couldn't get the score she needed on Bars (I think she would have needed a 15.6?) to beat Simone. She did not win any event titles but she took silver on ALL FOUR APPARATUSES. This girl is so amazing.
I think that Kyla had great meets both nights, I just think that the difference between her and Simone came down to their degrees of difficulty. Simone had much more planned than Kyla, who focuses more on execution and being able to do all of her routines perfectly to get the maximum execution scores. One of her highlights for me was her amazingly perfect DTY vault on night one. I mean it was PERFECT. Kyla won the Bars and Beam titles, scoring a 15.450, and a 15.500!! She had a great meet!
Brenna Dowell took the bronze in the All Around as well as on the Uneven Bars. She also did amazing on Vault both nights, scoring in the mid 15s. Other than her Beam routines scoring in the 13's both nights, she had a good meet, the rest of her scores in the 14s.
McKayla Maroney is BACK. She only competed on Vault and Floor but she ended up taking both of those titles! Her vault scores were 15.700 and 16.000 (obviously, the only 16 in the competition) and on Floor she received scores of 14.850 and 15.250!
This was Elizabeth Price's first meet back since her injury. She only competed on Vault and Uneven Bars. Night one she had a horrible mishap in her bars routine, which resulted in a very low 12.250. Other than that routine though, she did very well! In finals on Vault she scored a 15.150 on Vault and a 14.800 on Bars. I wish that she was healthier at this point.
Peyton Ernst finished outside of the medals, but overall I thought she looked great! It was close between her and Brenna for bronze, and they both had two scores in the 13's. I really really like Peyton and she seems to be really calm when competing in front of a big crowd. I really like that.
HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
The 2007 World Championships team (ONE OF MY FAVORITES EVER) and the Fierce Five were inducted into the Hall of Fame during the P&G Championships! I love love these pictures so much and congratulations to all of them, they more than deserve it!
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
This is an individual World's so there is no Team Final. There is Qualifications, All Around, and Event Finals. The key is to bring not only All Around gymnasts, but gymnasts that could win the most individual medals for the country.
The nominative list was just posted today and it says that Kyla and Simone will compete in the All Around, McKayla will do Vault and Floor Exercise, and Brenna will do Uneven Bars and Balance Beam. However, the World's selection camp I believe is the 12th-the 16th, so anything could happen. I think it will remain set though unless something major occurred.
