WOMEN SLOAN WINS WOMEN’S ALL-AROUND TITLE At ’09 VISA CHAMPIONSHIPS Photos by John Cheng ridget Sloan, a 2008 Olympic team silver medalist from Sharp’s Gymnastics, won her first U.S. all-around title at the 2009 Visa Championships at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Sloan, who was third after the first day of competition, came from behind to win the title with a score 117.550. “It feels great to win the Visa Championships,” said Sloan. “The first day didn’t go as planned, but today went well.” Sloan’s top scores of the two-day competition were for her Yurchenko double full vault (15.000), and her floor routine which includes a one-and-a-half to triple twist for her first pass (15.050). 2008 Olympic Team alternate Ivana Hong of WOGA finished a Kytra Hunter Mackenzie Caquatto close second in the all-around at 117.250. Hong’s top scores were on vault for her Yurchenko double (15.250) and her beam routine that included a flip flop series into a double pike dismount (15.200). WOGA’s Rebecca Bross, who led the competition after day one, landed in third place with an all-around score of 116.600. Bross had !" #$% a rough bar routine on day two that pulled her down in the rankings. Her top score of the competition was a 15.300 for her double twisting Yurchenko vault and a 15.050 for her jam-packed bar routine on the first day of competition. Kytra Hunter of Hill’s Gymnastics finished fourth in the all-around with 113.750 and took third on floor, showing a huge piked double Arabian and double layout. Sloan, 17, won both the bars and floor titles. Hong won the beam title and Kayla Williams of Gym Nest won vault, performing a double Jana Bieger Kayla Williams twisting Yurchenko and a front handspring front pike half. & 'Clustered together ( in the all-around ) were the next four * competitors +, -. ranking fifth through eighth, including Naperville’s MacKenzie Caquatto with a 111.950, Bieger’s Jana Bieger with a 111.550, Williams with a 111.350 and Cincinnati’s Cassandra Whitcomb with a 111.100. Whitcomb finished second on bars and Caquatto was third. 2008 Olympian Samantha Peszek of Sharp’s was second on beam, complete with her standing full to back pike combination. Bross finished third on beam and second on floor, with an interesting combination front handspring, front layout, to double front for her first tumbling pass. Rounding out the top 10 on the national team were Texas East’s / Alaina Johnson and Precision’s Kaitlyn 01 Clark. 2 3 456789:;< Cassandra Whitcomb Samantha Peszek The FIG Code of Points rules changed for this new quadrennium and of the two nights of senior women’s competition, there were only 12 scores of a 15.000 or above awarded to the senior women. They were earned by six gymnasts: Sloan, Hong, Bross, Hunter, Williams and Peszek. It was great seeing four of the 2008 Olympians return to competition and perhaps marks a new trend in women’s gymnastics. 2008 Olympians Nastia Liukin of WOGA and Chellsie Memmel of M&M Gymnastics both competed on the balance beam. The top 10 in the all-around made the national team in addition to Peszek, Liukin, Memmel, Orlando Metro’s Olivia Courtney, and All Olympia’s Mattie Larson and Samantha Shapiro. Liukin, the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, was named both Athlete of the Year and Sportsperson of the Year, and her father and Nastia Liukin Chellsie Memmel coach Valeri Liukin was named Coach of the Year. Large: Bridget Sloan Upper right: WOMEN S SENIOR TEAM PHOTO P. 34 Ivana Hong Lower right: Rebecca Bross USA GYMNASTICS SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2009 11 WOMEN Ross Wins Junior Title welve-year-old Kyla Ross Kyla Ross of Gym Max in California led the first day of junior competition and then persevered through several lead changes during the second day of competition Photos by John Cheng to win the U.S. junior national title with a 114.000 total. Ross’ Yurchenko double !" #$% twist gave her the vault title and clinched the all- around crown. Ross also won the beam title with clean and consistent routines on both days of competition and was third on floor. “I’m very happy and surprised to win the title,” said Ross. “After my fall on bars, I just knew I had to keep strong and told myself not to give up.” & ' ( ) *Bridgette +, Caquatto of Naperville -. Gymnastics was first in the all-around going into the last event, but overrotated her double pike beam dismount and dropped into second place overall with a total score of 113.450. Caquatto finished second on vault with her Yurchenko double. Alexandra Raisman of Brestyan’s Gymnastics who also led the competition at one point, finished third with 112.600 and placed second on beam. Sabrina Vega of Dynamic Gymnastics, was a / 01 2close fourth in 3the all-around (112.150), 456789:;< won the Bridgette Caquatto Alexandra Raisman floor exercise title and was third on beam. Cincinnati Gymnastics’ Amanda Jetter landed fifth all-around with a score of 110.950. Morgan Smith of Brandy Johnson Gymnastics and Madison Kocian of WOGA tied for sixth with a 110.000. Smith took second on bars. WOGA’s Briley Cassanova finished eighth at 109.900, while Sophina DeJesus of SCEGA (109.450) and Katelyn Ohashi of GAGE (109.350) rounded out the top 10. Ohashi was also second on floor. Another highlight of the competition was Gym Max’s McKayla Maroney who did a Yurchenko two-and-a-half twist on vault. The first day of competition she fell, but the second day she landed the vault and scored a 15.400, the highest score of the competition for women. She placed third on vault . Kennedy Baker of Texas Dreams won bars and WOGA’s Grace McLaughlin was third. An interesting note: there were only five scores given at the two-day competition of 15.000 or more, and they were earned by Ross, Caquatto, and Maroney. WOMEN S JUNIOR TEAM PHOTO P. 34 12 USA GYMNASTICS SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2009 MEN Horton Wins all-around title at 09 Visa Championships onathan Horton, 2008 Olympic high bar silver-medalist of Cypress Gymnastics in Houston, won the U.S. all-around title. Horton, 23, maintained the lead throughout the second night of competition to win his Photo by John Cheng first national all-around title with a total of 181.900. “I couldn’t be happier with myself,” said Horton, who was recently married. “I know I have a long way to go though, if I want to keep up with the rest of the world.” Horton also won the rings title, was second on floor and shared the high bar title with Danell Leyva of Universal Gymnastics in Miami. Tim McNeill, 23 and competing for the University of California-Berkeley, finished second all-around with !" #$% a score of 178.500, won the parallel bars title, and was third on pommel horse. Wesley Haagensen, 23, who trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, was third all-around with a total score of 178.00 and tied for third on rings with Stanford’s Tim Gentry. Cal Berkeley’s Kyle Bunthuwong landed fourth in the all-around with a score of 177.750. Leyva, 17, was fifth all-around at 177.600 and tied for second on parallel & ' ( ) * +, -.bars with Joey Hagerty. Cal Berkely’s Glen Ishino was sixth at 175.950. The University of Oklahoma’s Steven Legendre, who came in seventh all-around with a 178.850, also won the U.S. floor title and was third on vault. 2008 Olympic team bronze-medalist Hagerty of USOTC rounded out the top eight in the all-around with a score of 175.750. Gentry finished ninth with a 174.900. 2008 Visa All-Around Champion David Sender was second in the all-around after the first day of competition and scored a 17.050 on vault for his incredible Tsukahara / 01 2 3double 456789:;< pike. He also did a second vault, layout front handspring double full. Unfortunately, he missed the Tsukahara vault on day two of competition and finished second on vault. Sender had a tough second night of competition and dropped from second to 10th all- around. Sender finished second on rings. University of Illinois’ Luke Stannard won the pommel horse title, and Jake Dalton of Gym Nevada won the vault title, performing a layout Kasamatsu with a double full (a triple twist). Dalton and Sender were the only two gymnasts in the competition to perform 7.0 vaults. Other top performers were University of Michigan’s Chris Cameron, who finished third on floor; Minnesota’s Kit Beikmann placing second on pommel horse; and Stanford’s Alex Buscaglia who finished third on high bar. JONATHAN HORTON 14 USA GYMNASTICS SEPTEMBER • OCTOBER 2009 MEN Horton Wins continued Tim McNeill After the conclusion of the competition, Horton was named Athlete of the Year and 2008 Olympic team bronze-medalist Raj Bhavsar was named Sportsperson of the Year. Mark Williams of the University of Oklahoma was named Coach of the Year. The top 10 in the senior men’s all-around automatically qualified for the national team, and five additional “Bring Your Dreams to Light” gymnasts, including Olympic medalist Alex Artemev of 5280 Gymnastics, Buscaglia, Dalton, Sho Nakamori and Dreamlight is proud to present the most Ohio State’s Brandon Wynn were named by the Men’s Program Committee.