Level 8
Rachel Tickenoff won the Vault Championship title with a HUGE 9.625 vault in Santa Clara at the Level 8 Regional Championships (April 13-15). She also placed second on floor and took 10th All-Around in the Age 13C division. Teammate, Caroline White also had a good meet, placing 11th in the all-around for the Age 8-10 division.

Level 9
The following week, the Level 9 team traveled to Orem, Utah for the Level 9/10 Region 1 Championships. The meet started off well with Molly McFarland tying for 1st on vault with a great "hand-front" and sticking it on floor to place 2nd in that event. Her 3rd place all-around finish in the Jr B division not only earns her a spot on the Region 1 Team...but also allows the McFarlands to plan a family reunion during her trip to Western National Championships in Spokane next month.

For the Sr-C age division, Alex Leggitt also earned a spot on the Region 1 Team...with a be-eautiFUL 1st place beam performance and a 5th place finish in the all-around (despite a recent knee injury which will hopefully have time to heal before Westerns on May 11-13).

The following day’s first session saw a lot of purple and teal earn its way to the top of the podium. The New Hope girls started strong on beam and ended the rotation with the “New Hope bars show”—with every one of the teammates earning a 9.0 or MUCH better! For the Jr-C division, Lisa Wiktorski (obviously healed from a bad vault landing at State) had the meet of her life—sticking her 2-1/2 full/punch front on floor, claiming the division bars title with a 9.675 AND clinching the all-around title! Kaylie Higa,--with a solid first place on beam and a “not too shabby 9.575 on bars—earned a spot with her teammate on the Region 1 team. First year Level 9, Rachel Squier competed her best meet of this season—nailing a double back on floor and barely missing out on qualifying for Westerns in a very competitive age division.

Cheyenne Cox, age Jr D, continued her impressive season despite a torn meniscus from the first meet in January. Her second place on vault (9.325) and bars (9.575) secured a 3rd place all-around victory and another spot for New Hope on the Region 1 team. Taylor Webber, barely well from the flu, finished her meet with a 9.525 on bars which not only wow-ed the crowd but also qualified her to compete at Westerns.

The final session saw teammates and pals ending in a near tie…and earning two final Regional Team positions for New Hope. Lena Kardos’ flawless straddle-back and “stick” on bars and impressive floor performance resulted in 4th place all-around. And Sara Carlson--in her first meet since January due to a mid-season knee injury--stuck her vault and tkatchev bar routine for a 2nd place all-around despite two uncharacteristic falls on beam.

Needless to say, Coaches Bee Thoma, Chris Kelley and Krassi Varbanova could not have been more pleased with the meet. The New Hope Level 9 team earned five event championships and one all-around championship…and an ultra-impressive seven of the 48 total team positions for the entire Region 1 (Northern Cal, Southern Cal, Nevada, Arizona and Utah) Team which will compete at Westerns in Spokane, WA next month!

See all the scores for these meets on the "Level 8 Regional Championships" or "Level 9-10 Regional Championships" pages of this site.

Article last modified on 4/20/2007