Eleven year old Gerstner not only helped the YMCA gymnastics team take home 24 gold medals at the Twistars USA Invitational meet in Lansing this weekend, but her 37.9 all around performance lead all scorers.
“Annie’s always been known as one of the most powerful vaulters in the state,” said coach Jennifer Van Deinse, “but this weekend she put it altogether on all the events.” Added sister and co-coach Gina Van Deinse, “To outscore all of the other gymnasts in all age divisions and all levels is pretty impressive, but we’ve come to expect the best from Annie and all of our gymnasts.”
Gerstner’s 9.7 vault was itself a meet-high score, followed up with gold medal performances on bars (9.45), beam (9.35), and floor (9.4). The YMCA’s Francie Flores and Patricia Davis were not far behind, though. Flores won gold in her age group on vault and bars and placed second on beam, floor and all around. Davis took gold in her division on bars, beam, floor, and all around in her first Level 7 USAG meet. Together, Gerstner, Flores, and Davis combined for a Level 7 team score of 112.4 to capture 2nd place.
“For first-year Level 7 girls to perform so well really shows how hard they’ve been training,” said Coach Jennifer. “This was Patricia’s first Level 7 meet, and last year at this time they were all first-year Level 6 competitors.”
This year’s YMCA Level 6 team placed 4th and the Level 5 team placed 7th among the nearly 2,000 gymnasts competing at the Lansing meet. First place performances were recorded in their age divisions by Jade Turner (beam, floor and all around), Annemarie Jenkins (bars and all around), Darby Drake (floor), Kendra Benak (bars and all around), Olivia Flores (bars, floor and all around), Rachel Ovalle (vault), and Kayla Jackson (beam). When Amy Davis placed 2nd on beam and floor, Samantha Neddo placed 2nd on bars, Sierra Klein placed 2nd all around, and Kayla Brady placed 3rd all around, each one of the YMCA gymnasts brought home a bronze medal or better.
Altogether, Grand Traverse Bay YMCA gymnasts captured all around championships in six of nine age divisions.
The next meet for the YMCA gymnasts is the Tulip City Invitational in Holland, Michigan, beginning January 28.
+++
From Left to Right: Grand Traverse Bay YMCA Level 5 gymnasts Annemarie Jenkins, Jade Turner, Darby Drake, Kayla Brady, Sierra Klein.
From Left to Right: Grand Traverse Bay YMCA Level 7 gymnasts Patricia Davis, Francie Flores, Annie Gerstner.
