SHAWN JOHNSON DEFENDS HER TITLE hawn Johnson, 2007 World Champion, successfully defended her U.S. all- around and floor exercise titles at the 2008 Visa ChampionshipsS at Agganis Arena at Boston University, June 5-7. Johnson, 16, earned a combined score of 127.500 to win the all-around. “I was most happy about floor today,” Johnson said. “It’s a new routine and I didn’t feel like it was mine yet, but after today, I feel like I own it, and it fits me.” Johnson is from West Des Moines, Iowa, and trains at Chow’s Gymnastics. Nineteen-year-old Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, and WOGA Gymnastics finished second with a 126.500. “All in all, I am very happy with how things went this weekend,” Liukin said. Shawn Johnson I’m glad that summer is finally here and it’s really going to be exciting at Trials.” Chellsie Memmel and Samantha Peszek placed third and fourth with scores of 123.150 and 122.000, respectively. Rounding out the top six were Ivana Hong of Great Nastia American Gymnastics Express in fifth with a Liukin score of 120.750 and Jana Bieger of Bieger International in sixth with a 120.100. Twenty-year-old Memmel, the 2005 World All-Around Champion from West Allis, Wis., and training at M&M Gymnastics, showed she is back to top form by finishing third all- around. Her strong events were bars, beam and floor. She finished second on bars with a 32.30 and was fourth on beam and floor. Photos - Steve Lange Peszek, 16, from DeVeau’s School of Gymnastics in Fishers, Ind., and a member of the gold medal 2007 World Championships team, showed high difficulty on beam to score 18 USa GYMNaStiCS JULY • aUGUST 2008 Senior Women’s All-Around (top 12 all-around) CLUB PRELIM FINAL TOTAL 1 Shawn Johnson Chows 63.450 64.050 127.500 a 16.00 during the second day of competition (standing 2 Nastia Liukin WOGA 62.300 64.200 126.500 full to back pike and front pike). 3 Chellsie Memmel M-n-M 61.050 62.100 123.150 4 Samantha Peszek DeVeaus 60.750 61.250 122.000 Hong, also a member of the gold medal 2007 World 5 Ivana Hong GAGE 59.850 60.900 120.750 Team, scored highest on beam with a 15.80 complete 6 Jana Bieger Biegers 59.950 60.150 120.100 with her front aerial to flip flop layout step out. 7 Mattie Larson All Olympia 58.650 60.200 118.850 8 Corrie Lothrop Hills 57.950 59.700 117.650 Johnson, using new music, won floor exercise with 9 Randy Stageberg Excalibur 57.050 58.950 116.000 a combined score of 32.250. Liukin, who has won nine 10 Mackenzie Caquatto Aerials 58.100 56.750 114.850 world medals, claimed two individual event titles: 11 Olivia Courtney Orlando Metro 57.750 56.350 114.100 12 Alaina Johnson Texas East 56.700 56.300 113.000 bars with a score of 34.150 and beam with a 32.450. Sacramone, who has seven world medals to her credit, Photo - Steve Lange won vault with a score of 30.700 for her fourth straight U.S. vault crown. “I just went out and had fun,” Sacramone said. “I held nothing back. I’m in a great place right now because I haven’t peaked yet and I’ll keep up my conditioning and refining for Trials.” The individual event medalists were: vault – Chellsie Sacramone (gold) and Britney Ranzy of Excalibur Memmel (silver); uneven bars – Liukin (gold), Memmel (silver) and Bridget Sloan of Sharp’s (bronze); balance beam – Liukin (gold), Johnson (silver) and Sacramone (bronze); and floor exercise – Johnson (gold), Sacramone (silver) and Mattie Larson of All Olympia (bronze). Thirteen gymnasts were named to the 2008-09 U.S. Senior National Team and will compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Gymnastics. The members of the national team are: Jana Bieger of Coconut Creek, Fla./ Bieger International Gymnastics; Mackenzie Caquatto of Naperville, Ill./Aerials; Olivia Courtney of Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro; Ivana Hong of Blue Springs, Mo./ GAGE; Alaina Johnson of Tyler, Texas/Texas East; Shawn Samantha Johnson of West Des Moines, Iowa/Chow’s; Mattie Peszek Larson of Los Angeles/All Olympia; Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas/WOGA; Corrie Lothrop of Gaithersburg, Md./Hills; Chellsie Memmel of West Allis, Wis./M&M Gymnastics; Samantha Peszek of Indianapolis, Ind./ DeVeau’s; Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass./ Brestyan’s; and Randy Stageberg of Chesapeake, Va./Excalibur. The remaining six athletes who will Ivana compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials are: Britney Hong Ranzy of Gaithersburg, Md./Excalibur; Amber Trani of Richlandtown, Pa./Parkettes; Darling Hill of Mt. Laurel, N.J./Will-Moor; Bridget Sloan of Pittsboro, Ind./Sharp’s; Chelsea Davis of Lakeway, Texas/Texas Dreams; and Shayla Worley of Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro. Photo - John Cheng Photo - John Cheng Alicia Women’s Sacramone Senior Team Photo - Steve Lange USa GYMNaStiCS JULY • aUGUST 2008 19 WIEBER WINS JUNIOR TITLE Photo - Max Morse ordyn Wieber, 12, of Dewitt, Mich., and Geddert’s Twistars USA, won the junior all-around title at the 2008 Visa Championships Jwith a score of 120.600. Samantha Shapiro of Los Angeles, and All Olympia finished second with a 119.050, with Cassie Whitcomb of Cincinnati Gymnastics in third with a score of 114.600. “My goal was to hit eight for eight and that’s what I needed to do,” Wieber said. “It feels awesome to win the junior title. I go in the gym everyday and it’s finally paying off.” Wieber and Shapiro split the individual event titles: Wieber won vault and floor exercise; and Shapiro finished first on uneven bars and balance beam. “I’m very happy to finish second all-around,” Shapiro said. “My goal was to hit four for four and do the best I could.” “It feels great to finish third all-around,” Whitcomb said. “I had surgery on my heel in December so this is a really big accomplishment for me.” Wieber maintained her first-day lead throughout the final day of competition. She started the day on floor with a score of 15.250. She then moved to vault, where she did a Yurchenko double full and scored a 14.950. In the third rotation, she hit a nice bar routine complete with a full twisting double layout dismount to score a 15.000. Wieber finished on beam and scored a 15.450 on her routine that included a standing full to back tuck and a double pike dismount. On bars, Shapiro scored a 15.900, the highest score of the day on any event. She has a 6.6 start value on bars and her routine featured a high Jaeger and a full twisting, double back dismount. She also hit her beam routine that includes a front aerial to flip-flop layout and a double pike dismount to score a 15.550, the highest of the day on that event. Asi Peko from Brown’s Las Vegas, finished fourth Jordyn Wieber all-around with her high score of the event 15.050 coming from floor on the first day of competition. Photos - Steve Lange She finished with a 114.350. Rounding out the top six were Cincinnati’s Amanda Jetter and GAGE’s Rebecca Clark with scores of 113.950 and 113.500, respectively. The remaining members of the junior national team in addition to these six are: Kamerin Moore, Gedderts; Randi Lau, What’s Up; Hallie Mossett, All Olympia; Annette Miele, Parkettes; Sabrina Vega, Dynamic; and Briley Casanova, WOGA. Samantha Shapiro Junior Women’s All-Around (top 12 all-around) CLUB PRELIM FINAL TOTAL 1 Jordyn Wieber Gedderts 59.950 60.650 120.600 2 Samantha Shapiro All Olympia 59.850 59.200 119.050 3 Cassie Whitcomb Cincinnati 57.450 57.150 114.600 4 Asi Peko Browns-LV 57.300 57.050 114.350 5 Amanda Jetter Cincinnati 56.800 57.150 113.950 6 Rebecca Clark GAGE 55.850 57.650 113.500 Cassie 7 Kamerin Moore Gedderts 56.150 56.950 113.100 Whitcomb 8 Randi Lau Whats Up 55.400 55.700 111.100 9 Hallie Mossett All Olympia 55.200 55.700 110.900 10 Annette Miele Parkettes 55.100 55.600 110.700 Women’s 11 Sabrina Vega Dynamic 55.150 55.250 110.400 Junior Team 12 Briley Casanova WOGA 54.900 55.150 110.050 20 USa GYMNaStiCS JULY • aUGUST 2008.