By Medicine Hat News on February 12, 2020.
The competitive gymnastics season began this past weekend with the Ed Vincent Invitational in Calgary, and as always Medicine Hat and Redcliff athletes racked up medals by the dozen. Medicine Hat-based Salta Gymnastics Club totaled 57 medals according to head coach Eva Paniti-Meyer, led by three all-around champions and a swath of individual event wins. Redcliff’s Twist and Flip also had lots of entrants, totaling seven medals in the scored events. In Level 3D, Jessa Krauss edged out Salta teammate Sonya Reid for the all-around title. Krauss won on floor with a 9.425 score, and while Reid won both bars and beam Krauss was third and second in those events respectively. Salta’s Brynnley Gertner dominated in Level 3B for her age group, garnering top scores on vault and beam and taking second on bars and floor to win the all-around. Level 4A was won by Jordis Barabe, whose consistency netted her second-place scores on three of four apparatus plus a third-place vault. Bree Hurlbut was third, bolstered by a first-place vault score of 9.200 and third on floor. In Level 4B, Kipp Stevens was second in the all-around including a first-place floor exercise score of 9.125. Teammate Liyana Khan was fourth, her top finish third on balance beam (9.375). Allyson Bonneville wound up second in her Level 4B age group, winning both the vault (9.375) and floor (9.400) routines. In Level 6A, Daniele Hollingworth took third in the all-around, helped by a second-place beam routine. Aubri Krassman was sixth in Level 6D, her highlight being a first-place floor routine worth 9.525 points. Both Gemma Snazel and Deija Gehring had something to smile about in the Level 6E division, with Snazel third in the all-around and winning beam (9.400), and Gehring fifth all-around but first on floor (9.450). In Level 6B, Ria Thacker came close to a podium finish in the all-around but did take third on uneven bars. Twist and Flip’s Kabri Stickel was sixth all-around and third on both vault and floor. Olivia Chenard won the vault in her Level 7C division and was second on floor, but had to settle for third all-around. Twist and Flip’s Hailey Irwin came away with silver in the Level 3A group’s floor exercise, though teammates Tia Malcolm and Madellyn Samuelson were higher in the all-around (seventh and eight respectively). In Level 3B at the older age division, Alyssa Pritchett was second and Sophie Foote third in the all-around, combining for three of the four individual event wins. Pritchett won the bars and floor, while Foote took the beam. Twist and Flip’s Avi Cowan was sixth with a second-place finish on beam. Rachel Little was second all-around in Level 4, winning the floor event (9.225). On the boys side, Cade Bonneville (Twist and Flip) took bronze for his parallel bars routine in under-12 Level 1. Teammate Nate Vossler was fourth in the 12-over Level 2 all-around, including a second-place finish on rings and third on horizontal bar. 20