Rose City Classic features top gymnastic competition

Competitors from Dallas, San Antonio, Louisiana and Arkansas converged on Tyler this past weekend for the first Rose City Gymnastics Classic. Despite the influx of talent, Storey Morris of Texas East Gymnastics made the biggest impression, taking first place in all four events to win all-around champion in the Level 9-10 session on Saturday.

Held at UT Tyler's Patriot Center, the meet was hosted by the Texas East Gymnastics Booster Club.

In Level 10 Sr. A's, Morris scored a 9.8 on the vault, a 9.7 on the uneven bars, a 9.6 on the balance beam and a 9.85 on floor exercise. This gave her an all-around score of 38.95. Teammate Courtney Harris was fifth all around with 36.27.

The Level 9 and 10 gymnasts were the feature session of the Rose City Classic. They represent the highest level Junior Olympic athletes, many of them having already qualified for the state meet later this month in Coppell.

World Olympic Gymnastics Association (WOGA) from Plano finished as Level 10 team champion with Texas East in second. Eagle's Wings Athletics (Allen) finished as Level 9 team champion with WOGA in second and Texas East in third. All told, there were 13 teams comprised of 53 gymnasts that took part in the Level 9-10 session.

Texas East's Morgan Key finishing fifth in the Level 10 Jr. B all around, while teammate Emily Rickman finished 10th with 35.9 in Level 9 Jr. A.

In Level 9 Jr. B, TEG's Denaya Moore tied for second with Brittany Sparks of Eagle's Wings. Both scored an allaround 37.32.

In Level 10 Jr. B, Morgan Key of Texas East tied for third in the uneven bars with 9.2. Key was also fifth on the floor and vault, and sixth on beam.

Erin Odom of Texas East won the vault in her Level 9 Jr. B division with a 9.5. Moore was first in the bars with 9.6 as well as grabbing fourth in the vault and beam and fifth on the floor. Other TEG competitors were Rickman and Courtney Harris.

Level V and VI gymnasts competed Sunday. Texas East Gymnastics got consistent performances in the vault, beam, and floor exercises to place first in Level VI with a score of 110.650. The all-around trophy in Level VI went to Sarah Shaffer of TEG, edging out teammate Sidney Dukes by 0.150 of a point.

Shaffer garnered the top award with a tie for fourth in the bars, tie for sixth in the vault and sixth in the beam for a total 37.125. Dukes totaled out with a first in the vault; 11th in the bars; third in the beam for a total of 36.975.

Level V came down to the last event as Jill's Gymnastics used overall team averages to take the team crown. Texas East's Lauren Bersano was the allaround division champion. Bersano won the beam, the floor exercise and tied for seventh on the bars. Texas East members in Level IV include Paeton Nolan, Annie Reese, Madi Burke, Tiffany Griffiths, Raven Davis and Danica Abanto.