Salta’s youth excel at home during Cactus Classic meet

By Sean Rooney on February 27, 2018.

Medicine Hat News

The next generation took centre stage as Salta Gymnastics Club held its annual Cactus Classic meet Saturday.

The eight- and nine-year-old set had a field day, with Salta athletes doing incredibly well in top-end divisions despite being some of the youngest competitors.

In all, there were 160 athletes from 11 clubs represented. Salta’s Kristen Friesen, 8, won the all-around in Junior Olympic Level 6 girls, including a massive gold medal uneven bars score of 9.575 points, and a winning balance beam score of 9.250. Teammate Olivia Chenard, 9, won the floor exercise with a massive 9.766 points, and also took second on vault. Both were competing at Level 6 for the first time.

Ria Thacker added a pair of Level 6 medals, silver on beam and third on bars.

In Level 3, Gemma Snazel left no doubt about the podium in her 7- to 9-year-old age group. She won every event except for vault, on which she was second, and therefore was the runaway all-around champ. Makayla Van Leeuwen did the same in her Level 3 10- to 16-year-old group, topping the charts in everything but bars where she settled for bronze. Jenna Schubert was third all-around behind Van Leeuwen with a win on floor and silver on beam, while Jorgia Lundquist was second on bars and third on vault.

Level 2 medallists included Deija Gehring (first all-around), Sonya Reid and Chelsia Cooper (second all-around) in the 6- to 9-year-old group, plus Bree Hurlbut (third all-around) in the 10- to 14-year-old division.

Alexis Beebe (second) and Keely Hansen (third) made the podium in Level 1 for girls five to eight years old.

Coach Rebecca Schmal wrote that there’s still lots of work to be done before the zone trials in two weeks’ time.

Also on display Saturday was the Salta Achievement Squad group of athletes. Medal winners in their respective divisions were Tessa Steinkey (bronze all-around in 9- to 11-year-old Level 3) and Madellyn Samuelson (bronze all-around in 8- to 13-year-old Level 1).

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