In The Hartland: Ella's State Championship Gymnastics Meet

After much anticipation, the big day of Ella's state championship gymnastics meet arrived. Ron and I were both able to slip away to take her to Tacoma to cheer her on in her biggest meet of the season. It was held at the beautiful convention center downtown and we were all impressed by the fancy venue and the size of the competition. Since there are so many different ages in Level 2, it was broken up into three different meets today. Ella competed in the second of three meets against the four youngest group of girls. Although she was nervous about competing at the state level and also competing on the beam for the first time since falling off at her last meet, she did a great job! Luckily, she was able to start off on the bars which is one of her strongest events and got an amazing score of 9.5. This helped to start her meet off on a good note. Then Ella moved to the beam where she had to wait over twenty minutes until the judges were ready for her group. I was so nervous for her and worried that all of this time waiting would make it worse. Luckily, Ella was the third in her group to go on the beam and she performed her best routine of the season. She nailed every skill and earned a score of 9.125 which is her highest one yet. I was so relieved when it was all over that I started crying! Good thing Ella didn't see me. Ella then moved onto the flour and performed a solid routine. Ron and I were both surprised to see that she only earned a score of 9.1, but we were still grateful that it was in the 9s. Ella's than moved onto the vault for her last event which gave me high hopes for a strong finish since this is Ella's best event. She did exactly what I had hoped for and earned her highest vault score of the season--a 9.650! We were all so excited! I immediately went and stood close to where Ella was sitting on the floor after her score popped up on the board and was able to snap the cutest picture of her reacting after seeing her high score! Ella earned an all-around score of 37.375 which is her best all-around for the season and such an exciting way to end her first competitive season.

We then moved into the next room where the medals ceremony took place. Ron and I were able to snag seats on the front row right after the Level 6 ceremony ended. Although they awarded medals for each event for the Level 6 gymnasts, we quickly figured out that they were only awarding the top ten Level 2 gymnasts in each age group for their all-around score. This was a bit of a bummer as we learned later that Ella was fifth in the vault and third on the bars and would have earned two more medals. Regardless, we sat on the edge of our seats with anticipation as the announcer started with the youngest group and worked her way up the oldest and last group, Youth C, which was Ella's group. We were so thrilled to hear her name announced over the microphone as she earned 7th place in her age group. Since this meet was the state championship meet, earning this medal means that Ella is the 7th best, all-around gymnast in our state for her age group in Level 2 which is pretty amazing! Ron and I were so happy that Ella placed on the podium and was able to go home with a medal around her neck! Overall, we are so proud of how hard Ella has worked this past year putting in all of those long hours practicing in her gym without ever complaining. Her determination, hard work, and endurance really paid off. We are so proud of you, Ella, and can't wait to see what great things you accomplish next year in gymnastics!