Buckeye Classic National Elite Qualifier

I spent a while watching the videos from this meet (big thanks to youtube user Beechurst10 who filmed nearly every routine!) and I was impressed with some of the gymnastics I saw. There seemed to be better quality routines than other recent qualifiers and quite a few gained the score to compete at Nationals. There were 2 sessions. In the Junior division the following earned the qualifying score of 52.00 to compete at Nationals (I'm sure some have already qualified before) : Kennedy Baker (53.950), Braie Speed (52.00), Amelia Hundley (54.500), Brianna Brown (53.90), Lauren Beers (53.60), Bailie Key (53.50), Lexie Priessmann (53.150). The only Senior who qualified to Nationals was: Chelsea Davis (55.250)!

Lexie Priessmann - She didn't have a great meet (falls on floor and beam) but at the end of her beam routine came a big suprise a FULL-IN! It was landed well with nice form. I really like this gymnast her floor routine makes me smile, I just hope she can keep it together to make the National Team this year. Watch her full-in below:

Chelsea Davis - She competed her first all around competition this weekend and she did well qualifying for Nationals. Her best score was Bars with 14.60, the rest of her routines were in the 13s. She has a new floor routine which I like and she definetely looked in better shape than at the Metroplex so lets hope she is getting back to her best. Her beam still needs work with some of the leaps and I personally think she should change the round off layout step out (which she is having trouble with) and work on a layout to two feet which surely is not going to hurt her back more and will give her more difficulty.

Bailie Key - She is one of my favourite little juniors and has a similar cute still and excellent form as Lizzie Leduc (shes from WGA Texans). She qualified for Nationals this weekend and had the highest score on beam (14.20) of the whole competition including both sessions and Junior and Senior!

Brianna Brown - She is another elite from Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy. She had a solid all around competition with mid to high 13s on all events, but my favourite routineof hers is floor because I really like the music! (its the same as Sui Lu)

A group of gymnasts I was impressed with this weekend were Monmouth Gymnastics Academy who I haven't heard of much before. They had 1 gymnast Courtney Horstman in the Junior competition but I was most impressed with the 3 Hopes gymnasts: Laurie Hernandez, Breanna Ray and Khayla Jennings. They all showed real potential and are still so young Laurie and Khayla were born in 2000 and Breanna in 1999!
Laurie Hernandez - She is still 9 years old and had some really BIG skills (maybe too much for her age) but her form was also really nice and she has actual SPLIT leaps. Her skills included double pike on floor, free walkover, sheep jump, split change+pike back and double pike dismount on beam! Check out her floor here she has a really interesting dance style which I personally like as its different. She has to work on consistency but she is definitely a future star: