Members of the Summit Gymnastics Academy in Savannah once again demonstrated why they are one of the finest gymnastics centers in the southeast with yet another impressive showing by the Level 8 gymnasts at their state meet.
Led by Nicole Clark, who won the All Around competition in her age bracket, the Summit team finished in sixth place from a field of 30 teams at the Level 8 State Meet on March 20-21 in Duluth, Georgia. In addition, five of the sixth girls from the Summit squad qualified for regionals against a field of more than 250 athletes.
“That’s exceptional to place sixth with only six girls on the team,” explained Shelly Davis of Summit Gymnastics. “They take the top four scores so for a team with only six athletes to do so well against other squads that have armies of 15-20 gymnasts is outstanding. They all kept it together and had their best meets of the season.”
“Nicole had the meet of her life,” said Davis. “She came in with the goal of winning the all around and she performed well and did just that. She came in psyched up with a plan on what to do on every event and did it.”
Joining Clark as a region qualifier were Jordan Pike, who made regionals for the first time and had her highest scores of the season, Ona Loper, Parrish Murphy and Savannah Jackson. Elise Wells did not qualify for regionals, but recorded her best score on the floor exercise with a score of 9.325. All six girls recorded nines on floor and the team placed sixth of 35 teams.
“Savannah had struggled earlier in the season with some falls and some inconsistency,” said Davis. “At this meet she put it all together and did a phenomenal job of hitting all four events and as a result getting her highest all around score of the season.”
“They all really put it all together at this meet,” added Davis. “Parrish Murphy came into the meet with a goal of scoring all nines and she made it.”
Ona Loper also continued her run of excellence by posting an overall fifth place finish. While the top 77 athletes head to the region meet as individual competitors, the top eight athletes represent the region as members of the region team, a distinction that Loper missed by the most narrow of margins.
“You can’t make regionals if you make mistakes and Ona made a mistake on bars when she simply tried to record the best score of her entire life,” said Davis. “She made a mistake because she was not holding anything back. She had scored as high as a 9.7 before on that event and her goal was a 9.9. She went for it and unfortunately made a minor mistake and it cost her. It cost her a chance to win the all around and a chance to make the all region team. If she had done her 9.7 bar routine she would have had the highest score of the entire meet.”
This shows that this is a very talented group,” added Davis. “It’s odd to have that many girls that are so talented and that performed so well. They exceeded our expectations in that regard. In gymnastics, it’s hit or miss almost like the flip of a coin. Even with the most talented and well trained kids, so many things can happen. They can make mistakes just like Olympians do. This is the type of event where all the kids are good and for them all to rise and perform the best that they have during the entire season is remarkable. That’s really all that I can ask for.”
“They just stepped up and did their best,” continued Davis. “That’s the hardest part about this sport. It all comes down to how you competed on that day. It doesn’t matter how talented you are or how hard you work in the gym. Sometimes some of my hardest workers have the hardest time competing. In this day and age you want to be able to say that the harder you work the better you the results, but in reality it comes down to how you compete. In our program, with us trying to prepare these kids for college, you have to be a strong competitor. Teams have to be able to count on you. For a lot of gymnasts it comes down to the mental aspect, if you can block everything out and focus and execute. From that standpoint, all of these young ladies did that exceptionally well at this event.”
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