Our State Meet was in St. George this year.
We were still disappointed with Shireen's vault score but it was still a weak vault.
She got an 8.425 and took 10th place.
Shireen did an incredible bar routine and took 1st place in the Jr. 1 division!
She got a 9.375. This score was the second highest for all of Level 9 in the State!
Shireen had a pretty good beam routine and she took 4th place.
Her score was a 9.025
Shireen had a very rough start on floor.
She messed up her first pass and only did her roundoff 11/2 stepout.
She was off so she only did her other roundoff and just jumped in the air instead of doing her full!
I was in the audience devastated because that was her pass that had two connecting tumbling moves.
That would have been probably a full point deduction for not having that move.
But on Shireen's last pass, she added an extra tuck onto her tumbling pass and blew her mom away!!!
Thanks to her coach Natasha who motioned what to do and Shireen's quick thinking, she saved her routine!!
She ended out with a 9.0 floor score (5th place) and we were all so proud of her!!
Shireen ended out with an all around score of 35.825! Her best of the season!
She took 4th all around for the Jr. 1 division.
Were were very happy with her getting 1st on bars and 4th all around but things even got better!
They named the top 6 gymnasts for the entire meet.
Shireen was 5th highest for the whole State of Utah!
It was such a proud moment for our family!!!!
Our team took 3rd place for the State!
Of course we always take advantage of our trip opportunities.
Our family headed over to Las Vegas for the weekend.
We explored Excalibar and found Spongebob.
We also hit the M & M factory and the Coca-Cola factory.
We stayed at Arizona Charlies because of the Bingo!!
It really was a good weekend for me - I actually won!!!!
We were off to Sacramento, CA for Regionals.
Our gym was in an uproar with new owners and we didn't even know if we had a gym.
We managed to work things out to stay for Regionals.
Shireen, my mom and I drove to try and save money.
We were divided into separate age categories. McKenna and Brittany were in Jr. 1.
Shireen was in Jr. 4, and Sydney was in Jr. 5.
Shireen and Sydney competed together early Sunday morning.
Shireen started on Bars first. She did a very good bar routine and we were disappointed with her 9.075 score.
She did beam next and we still felt like the score was a bit low but it was a good score - 9.150.
She had a pretty good floor routine but I wasn't expecting too high of a score but it was pretty good - 9.225!
Her vault was much better than she'd done the past few months and I was actually happy with the 8.825 score.
We knew pretty close what place Shireen would get.
They take the top 6 girls to Nationals.
Shireen and Sydney tied in their All Around score (36.275).
But because they were in different age groups, I was sure Sydney made it but knew
Shireen was very close to 6th or 7th place.
They went out 8 places and Shireen took 8th on her vault.
Shireen took 7th on bars which was sad for me because she looked so good on bars!
She also took 6th on floor.
She took 5th on Beam.
At that point, I was really expecting her not to make it to Western Nationals.
Doing the mental math with her places (8th,7th,6th,5th). It was so close for her to make the top 6!!!
When they started naming the two alternates and their All Around scores, my hopes were soaring!
Then when she even made 5th instead of 6th it was even better!
SHIREEN MADE IT TO WESTERN NATIONALS!!!!!!
She got measured for her warm-ups and leotard and it was so thrilling!!
Natasha and Yuriy were as excited as we were. We new at least 2 girls were going to Nationals!
We had to wait another 4 hours to find out that McKenna was going to Nationals too!
We did enjoy a nice meal at Red Lobster but we didn't do anything fun (except for the meet!)
We had a long drive back on Monday.
Then we had 3 weeks to prepare for Nationals!!
It was so sad not to have Brittany make it to Nationals but she was there in spirit with
the cute frog and necklace she gave Shireen and the other girls.
Ahmad and Grandma were also excited to see a new part of the country.
We were flying to Tulsa, Oklahoma and will be staying in Bartlesville, Oklahoma for the meet.
We made it to our hotel and was up early the next morning for practice on the equipment.
They had a good practice and I think they were happy with the equipment.
It was different in that there was a separate room for them to warm up the events except for bars.
They would only get a minute touch on the real equipment during the meet.
After practice, we had Chinese Buffet for lunch with the coaches.
Sydney was staying with relatives so she didn't get to join.
That evening we drove to the Woolaroc Wildlife and Game Preserve and Clyde Lake
for a Welcome Bar-B-Q.
Shireen loved seeing the wild animals and enjoyed the Buffalo!
We enjoyed the Bar-b-q meat, potato salad, baked beans, and rolls.
The girls enjoyed the music and put on a show for us.
They joined the other gymnasts for some fun dancing.
Natasha and Yuriy joined us and they had a coaches meeting there also.
It was great to have some "men" there for a change.
Mostly just the moms take the girls to the meets - while the men hold down the "fort" at home.
Grandma was enjoying the party and looking forward to her birthday tomorrow when they compete!
The night was topped-off with balloons and fireworks!
It was a really fun evening.
All three girls had separate meet times. Shireen had the best time.
She was able to sleep in (McKenna had the early time) but she didn't have to wait all day like Sydney.
Finally it is Shireen's turn to compete. She warms up good.
They start on bars first. This is most of the Region 1 team.
Each Region wore a different colored leotard.
Shireen had a really good bar routine but her score was very low.
We couldn't understand why except that she was doing a much harder routine than the other girls!
We thought most of the girls would have tkachev's or other release moves but
the other routines were very simple and clean.
If Shireen did the same simple routines as the other girls, I'm sure she would have done great!
You don't get rewarded for harder skills!
She only got a 8.75 on bars!
She got a 9.3 on beam which was a great score and 7th highest.
She only got an 8.975 on floor (but she has harder tumbling than many of the gymnasts!)
I was actually happy she got and 8.9 on vault - she kept improving since she was sick!
Her overall score was 35.925 which was very respectable.
We were very proud of Shireen and her accomplishments this season.
She didn't get any medals because they only went out 6 places
but Region 1 took 2nd place and she got a certificate!
The parents are very proud of these
"National" girls!!
They worked very hard and it was so great to see their hard work pay off!!
Now it's on to Level 10!
They can look forward to lots more hard work this summer!!
Check out Shireen's Level 9 season (2008)
Check out Shireen's Level 8 season (2007)