Jazmyn Foberg, who had a consistent lead after the first day of competition had another great evening consolidating her position. She started with a business-as-usual bars set: van Leeuwen, Jaeger, Ricna to Pak salto, full in dismount (an almost the same score as in day one: 14.45/14.4). Beam was a bit shaky, with a big wobble on her acro series – flick -loso and on an aerial walkover but although she lost a bit of rhythm and she was visibly nervous she managed to remain focused. Foberg then had a great time on floor although she was not awarded full difficulty as in day one – only 5.5 compared to 5.8; but she did have amazing tumbling passes with double layout, 11/2 twist to double back, full in and double pike. The last event was vault where she threw a massive Yurchenko double full.
2nd in the all around ranks at the end of the competition, was Nia Dennis. She had had falls on both bars and beam in the first day and was ranked 3rd mostly due to strong vault and floor sets. Saturday’s all around went slightly better for Dennis, in that she managed to have the amazing bars set she was aiming for. Unfortunately she had troubles again on beam falling on the standing Arabian and balking her acro series. But floor and vault were again her allies. On vault she threw one of the best DTYs of the competition. On floor she presented perhaps the highlight routine of the day in the entire competition (perhaps matched by only Victoria Nguyen’s beam) with massive and exquisite tumbling: double layout, double Arabian, 1 1/2 twists to double back and finishing with a double pike.
Norah Flatley finished 3rd. She was hoping to make up for a less successful first day and finish the competition on a more positive note, especially on balance beam. Unfortunately, the pressure got to her and Norah fell again on beam this time on the layout to two feet; in the first day it had been on the sheep jump. Small execution errors added up on bars too where she didn’t manage to break into the 14s. Floor and vault went well but lower difficulty on these events (FTY on vault, 5.6 on floor) couldn’t help her make up for the lost points on the previous apparatuses.
Jordan Chiles had a spectacular recovery managing a day 2 total four points higher compared to the 1st day, thus jumping from 19th to 4th place. The best events for her were vault (DTY) and floor (huge double arabian, exquisite twisting form) where she managed execution scores of 9+.
Chow’s Alexis Vasquez finished 5th after consistent performances and very similar all around totals both days (55.55 on Thursday and only .05 more on Saturday). Her beam routine, with scores of 14.7 both days was one of the best of the meet.
Some of the best or most intriguing routines of the day were Emily Gaskins‘ floor routine, Ragan Smith‘s floor and vault, Victoria Nguyen‘s beam (top score , 15.20), Olivia Trautman‘s floor, Deanne Soza‘s beam etc.
The gymnasts selected for the 2014 National team were: **Jazmyn Foberg, Nia Dennis, Norah Flatley, Jordan Chiles, Emily Gaskins, Alexis Vasquez **and Bailie Key.
Here are the scores:
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**Complete results **
Article by: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo Cover: USA Gymnastics