The third meet of Caitlin’s 2006 gymastics season was the Begonia Gymfest held last weekend in Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz. This was the compulsory team’s “away” meet this season, and it was packed! Our session was Saturday afternoon/evening and included 69 gymnasts. (The maximum allowed is 72 per session.) This wasn’t the worst possible session for us, but it wasn’t the best either. (I think the best possible would have been the first Sunday morning session. This would have given us all day Saturday to explore Santa Cruz. We were all staying in a nearby hotel, so getting to the meet on time would have been easy, and we could have gone to Autie Mame’s Cafe for our post-meet party. More on the cafe below…)
The meet ran a bit slow and seemed a little disorganized, but the high school gymnasium was a pretty decent venue. We could see all the events without following our gymnasts, and the gym had light panels (translucent windows) that let in quite a bit of natural light. (Lighting is a big deal for all the parents taking non-flash photographs of their kids!)
Caitlin had another beautiful beam routine, and she seems to have overcome her cart wheel problem. I thought her performance on the uneven bars was excellent, but the judges must have spotted some technical flaws that I missed. She did a very nice floor routine, but she put her hand on the floor when she wasn’t supposed to, which gets counted as a fall (an automatic 0.500 deduction). Her all-around score is still climbing, and I think it will continue to do so throughout the season. She placed third all-around in a very crowded field. Great job, Caitlin!
| Event | Score | Place |
|---|---|---|
| Vault | 8.450 | 5th |
| Bars | 8.850 | 4th |
| Beam | 9.375 | 1st |
| Floor | 8.775 | 3rd |
| All around | 35.450 | 3rd |
