Back to Winter Cup today for the junior women and the remaining senior women who were not popular enough to get an invite to the party yesterday. LILLY LIPPEATT YOU CAN SIT ELSEWHERE. With the added pleasure of getting to make fun of a FLO broadcast. It’s at least 70% why I’m here.

I’m expecting this meet to be verrrrrrry junior. We shall see.

Everyone’s favorite junior is already Paloma Spiridonova because of the name Spiridonova.

Li Li giving a State of the Meet address to thank the athletes or whatever, and I agree that it’s kind of weird timing. It feels a little mandatory. Like, let’s all stand at attention and listen to The Leader.

Anthem and intros done, moving on to touch warmup. The vault and beam feeds are currently down for the touch warmup. It’s going great!

We’re startings.

Rotation 1

Elle Mueller hit a yfull on vault.

Ella Kate Parker, the CGA junior on beam, has some nice dance element positions. Solid routine.

Sullivan – FX – WOGA – full in, solid – front tuck through to double back, comfortable landing – switch ring to switch 1/2 – double pike – attempted a doubel L that she couldn’t get around – 2/1 final pass. The tumbling was comfortable

Levi Jung Ruivivar with a clean Yfull on vault, one step back.

Matthews – BB – candle mount, good – wolf doubel attempt, gets caught on the beam at 1.5 twists. Tries another double wolf, ends up kind of resting her hand on the beam and doing a little improvised leg thing, well those were both delightful and hilarious – side aerial to bhs and falls – finishes with a hit 2/1 dismount.

Lippeatt – BB – bhs loso series with a small check – side aerial through to switch – aerial to split jump to korbut – straight jump 1/1 from side and split jump 1/2 from side, both hit. I think this routine is almost entirely side jumps – double pike dismount, hit, knee eater but hit. Mostly doing dance elements there.

Autumn reingold on bars had some nice toe point.

Sumanasekera – UB – stalder to toe on to maloney to pak, hit – dead hang on a shoot and now her coach is standing right in front of the camera – finishes double tuck. Not doing a lot of D but a clean hit except for the dead hang

Roberson – BB – loso mount, onodi, hit – aerial to straddle jump split jump – switch – split jump 1/2 from side – straight jump 1/1 from side – bhs loso loso, secure – bhs bhs double pike, hit, bestter chest up, step back. She’s showing a lot more difficulty than the others and stayed on well.

Spiridonova – FX – dramatic music because russian nameeeeee – double pike, solid landing – triple turn – switch ring to switch 1/2 – back 1.5 to front full – split leap full – wolf single – 2.5, comfortable landing under control. Good work. Again, not a ton of D but has the technique potential. Valentina will be loading her into the trunk of a car shortly.

Klein finishing the rotation on beam with a hit side aerial to loso – punch front, holds it – straight jump 1/1 from side, a check – switch to straddle jump – double pike, hit, chest down.

Lincoln – FX – huge full in, lunge back because she finished so early – front tuck through to double tuck, bounce back – switch ring to split leap full – wolf double – wolf triple – switch full – not quite up to these split positions – double pike, hit. A step up from everyone else we’ve seen in terms of her amplitude and tumbling potential.

I like that the live scores are just like “Lippeatt didn’t do beam, what are you saying about”

Jong – BB – pretty smooth wolf double – tries a back tuck full and falls – hit punch front – standing loso to back pike – switch to pike – side aerial, hit – double pike and sits it down – two falls there but has some solid acro ability

Matthews – FX – 3/1, hit, a little short but just a small hop – back 1.5 to front full and steps OOB – the wolf turns are GETTING HER today, that triple attempt was something – double tuck, secure landing –

JungRuivivar – UB – stalder full to maloney, hit into pak, stalder – van leeuwen, hit, legs get crazy – piked jaeger, low but gets it – FTDT, lunge back. A hit.

Lincoln with an easy yfull on vault, high, bounce back

Another hilarious wolf turn attempt from Reingold on beam. The wolf turns. I realize the primary reason I’m watching this session is to make not eof all the wolf turn GIFs I need to make

Lippeatt – FX – piked full in, nice – full to direct double tuck, her signature, hit under control – switch ring to split leap full, bouncy landing but I’d say around – 2.5 to front tuck, pulls it out – drops double Y attempt a little early – short on some splits – double pike, lunge back. Showed some solid difficulty there and looked comfortabel with it.

Tobia is having the troubles with a Church on bars.

Sumanasekera has some nice dance element potential on beam. She can hit rings. Large break on a side aerial.

Roberson – FX – DLO, solid, small movement on landing – double arabian, hit, lunge forward – wolf double, no trouble – double tuck, stuck landing – 1.5 through to double pike, hit, just some chest down. OK now! That was very good.

Elle Mueller fell early on bars on a pirouette but also has and Yezhova, so…

Pineda on beam has also fallen on a wolf turn.

Klein – FX – solid DLO from her – double tuck, hop back – switch to split leap full – front tuck through to 2/1, bounce back – double pike, hit, hop to the side. Similar to Roberson before, they’ll get her for dance element positions but comfortable tumbling and a good DLO.

Parker is finishing the rotation on floor. I swear this one is just four months old. Small enough to get around that piked full in first pass – 3/1, hit – nice dance elements – 2.5 to front pike, hit – double pike, stuck landing. Lots of potential. Someone make sure she doesn’t get CGA LEG before she’s a college gymnast.

Has anyone done a retrospective of how many CGA gymnasts have actually been able to compete four events in college?

Speaking of Mary Lee, the vault cam is currently just a closeup of her butt. HAPPY SUNDAY.

After 2, Roberson leads the juniors but a tenth over Sullivan and two tenths over Jung-Ruivivar and Parker.

Rotation 3

Lippeatt – VT – solid yfull, small hop, some knees, good.

Another wolf turn fall on beam, this time from Jung-Ruivivar. yippeehooray.

Roberson with a hit yfull, larger lunge back.

Charlotte Booth with a double front bars dismount save for the ages. Two deep squats but she didn’t fall!

Spiridonova – UB – front giant to piked jaeger and falls – really laid out pike shape though – stalder to pak, pretty stalder shapes but she’s having some troubles getting through this one.

Temple Landry stays on beam, which I mostly mention because I will not be able to stop calling her Temple Grandin – good 1.5 dismount.

Sumanasekera shows a DLO on floor, which was a bit of a surprise because she has been on the “go clean and simple” routine construction on other events – hit it.

Cool side aerial to back tuck combination from Tobia on beam. Hit a double tuck dismount with a lunge back.

Johnson – UB – toe full, nice finish position into maloney to pak – toe 1/2 to pikled jaeger, caght it, looked very close.

Robinson – BB – I believe this is her first event of the day – bhs bhs layout attempt and falls – switch to switch 1/2 to back tuck, hit – aerial with a leg-up check – side aerial to split jump to wolf jump, some of the best execution and presence we’ve seen on beam today – 2/1, small hop.

Jong – FX – opens with a double double tucked and pulls it around, chest down but landed – full in, hit, bounce back – double L turn, around – back 1.5 to front full with a hop – wolf double, didn’t die – double pike, hit, chest down. That was solid. Big tumbling difficulty.

Mueller sort of survives a wolf turn on beam – nice side aerial to loso series and some better amplitude on her switch 1/2 – double tuck, lunge back

Zeiss – BB – competing again after doing the Nastia Cup – wolf triple and it’s good! Followed by wolf double, also hit. It’s a whole new world. bhs loso series, secure, some knees – switch to switch 1/2, solid – aerial, check and some form, small check – side aerial, hit – 1.5 dismount. That was very confident.

On to the 4th rotation. We’re moving at a fast pace! I appreciate!

Roberson still leads the juniors by two tenths over Parker and three tenths over Sullivan. Lippeatt has the top senior score here so far, by 1 tenth over Zeiss.

Rotation 4

Roberson – UB – clear hip full – maloney to clear hip but goes over the wrong way and has to recorrect – hits Ray – clear hip 1/2 to Yezhova – toe shoot – DLO, stuck, nice finish but will be a lower score.

Spiridonova falls on beam on a side aerial loso attempt

Katelyn Jong showed up with a nice DTY, hop back. She also had the most in terms of floor difficulty.

Sullivan – BB – falls on an Arabian – bhs bhs layout attempt, a second fall – aerial to straddle was nice – hit onodi –

Mueller opens floor with a hit 2.5, secure landing on double pike – good switch positions – steps OOB on a double tuck –

Klein with a solid bars set, good release difficulty, had some formies on her more difficult releases and some pirouette issues, but the good-college-set potential is brimming.

Madray Johnson mounted beam with a loso and did a bhs loso loso series that totally had room to do a 4th element like she’s the dominique dawes.

Zeiss – FX – double tuck, hop back – switch 1/2, good height – 1.5 through to 2/1, chest down but survived – wolf double with a lean but among the better we’ve seen today because she stayed standing – front full to front pike, hop –

Parker hit a clean bars routine, which was impressive because I was unsure whether she would need a raft to get from low bar to high bar or not.

Booth – BB – candle mount and takes it immediately to straddle split, which was either an excellent cover or a better take on the elemtn – break on loso series but stays on

Matthews – UB – stalder shap to stalder to Ricna, hit – jaeger, good toes, some very late handstands will take away the score – toe on, toe shoot – DLO, lunge back

Jung-Ruivivar – FX – wolf double, fine – split ring leap, and it’s real – double pike, solid landing – 1.5 to layout, solid, some foot form – switch ring – switch 1/2 – double tuck, well short and falls

I believe Lippeatt’s bars is the only routine we’re waiting on now. Bars scoring has been like molasses this rotation.

Lippeatt – UB – toe full to van leeuwen, got the combo, leg positions – weiler 1/2 to Ricna to pak, hit, close on ricna but worked through it, legs on pak – maloney to bail to stalder shoot – FTDT, step. Good. One of the more complete routines of the session.

For the juniors, Parker will end up as the champion with a 52.350, followed by Roberson and Johnson tied for 2nd. Very obvious potential in Parker. The “new standout I didn’t know about before” from this one. Probably because when the pandemic started, she wasn’t born yet.

Lippeatt went 13.350 on bars, which gives her a total of 53.250, the top overall in this session and puts her in 4th among the seniors, behind only Chiles, Jones, and Emily Lee.

Well, that was…there.

I see what people were saying about how there was a lot of attention paid to making sure the senior elites had a way to continue training because LYMPICS and then with the juniors it was just like shrug emoji. Large performance gap right now. Which is always true because they’re juniors. But it seemed wider.