In The Hartland: Ella's Cascadian Team Challenge Gymnastics Meet

Ella competed in her fourth gymnastics meet today in Seattle called the Cascadian Team Challenge. After finishing so strong at the Coeur D'Alene meet last week, Ella was super excited to get out there today and keep her momentum going. Her goal was to score in the 9s for all four events since she was so close last week getting an 8.9 on the beam and 9s in all three of her other events. We left our house around 11:30 and drove the hour north to Seattle to compete in a large hanger that is located on the grounds of Magnuson Park on Lake Washington. After getting her checked in, I sat with my friend, Olivia, who is the mother of the other Ella on the team. I then spent the next three hours watching Ella warm up and then compete in all four of her events.

Ella started off on the bars and just killed it, receiving a 9.66 which is her highest score of the season. She then moved onto her most difficult event, the bars. After waiting awhile, it finally was her turn and Ella began her routine. Much to my surprise, she suddenly fell off the beam after coming down from her kickstand. I was so shocked as she has been so consistent this season. But, Ella immediately got up and finished her routine with near perfection. After Ella finished and sat down on the mat, she saw her low score of 8.575 and was totally devastated. She put her head down on her arms and just started crying. It just broke my heart to see her so sad and to not be able to go out and comfort her and offer some words of encouragement. It was a pretty rough 30 or so minutes as I stood completely helpless off to the side and watched my little girl work through these new feelings of disappointment. I could tell that she had not been able to shake it off by the time her group moved to the floor. She was still crying and looking very heartbroken while waiting to perform her routine last out of her entire group. When she got up to perform, I could tell that she didn't give it her all and received an 8.950 (in comparison to the 9.525 that she received last week). I was so sad for her that I actually started crying while sitting on my chair. Luckily, as Ella's group moved to their fourth and final event, Ella's coach, Bree, noticed that something was wrong and pulled her aside. I then watched Bree talk to her for a good two minutes and was so relieved to know that someone was giving Ella the pep talk that she needed to set these emotions aside and to go and give the vault her all. I was so grateful to see that Ella's entire countenance changed back to happy and smiling while she was waiting to go second to last in the vault. She was able to pull herself together and give it her best shot and got a great score of 9.475. I was so relieved to see that Ella was able to finish strong after two disappointing events.

After the meet was over, I moved to the awards ceremony section of the hanger to watch the girls receive their awards. Although Ella had placed really high in the bars and the vault, I didn't know how all of the other girls did in comparison to her and I wondered if she would even receive a ribbon. Since the number of age groups for Level 2 changes for each meet depending on how many girls compete, I am never quite sure when it is Ella's group's turn to be recognized. When they started handing out ribbons for the Youth B group, I though that this was Ella's group since a few girls from her team were called up who are normally in the same group as her. My heart just sunk when I saw that Ella didn't even place in the top 12 spots of the Youth B group. I was so sad for Ella as I knew that this would just be devastating for her not to place at all with such a large number of girls. The announcer then moved on to the next age group which was Junior A. After the top ten girls were called up, the announcer called the second place winner and I was totally shocked to hear Ella's name! I just couldn't believe it. Thanks to her high bars and vault scores, Ella was still able to place second out of twelve girls. Although I have no idea why she was put in the Junior A group, I was so incredibly grateful to see her finish so close to the top after a disappointing beam and floor routine. Ella was so happy to receive her ribbon and to stand on the podium. It totally saved the day and helped to heal the wounds from earlier that afternoon. I am so proud of Ella for being able to pull it together at the end of her meet and I am also grateful for this valuable learning opportunity for her to learn how to set her emotions to the side, turn it around, and give it her all. I am sure that this lesson will be one that will help her in many meets to come.

Since I took video instead of pictures of all four of Ella's events, I only took a few pictures during the meet. Here is Ella smiling at me while her team is getting ready to warm up.