Brookville’s Revolution Gymnastics Comes Home With 2 National Champions!

The 2010 YMCA Gymnastics National Championships were held in San Diego, Ca June 21-25. The championships were hosted by the Cameron Family YMCA of San Diego. Over 3,000 gymnasts from all over the country competed. Revolution took a team of 10 and returned to Brookville with 15 medals and 2 National Champions.

Opening ceremonies for Nationals were held at Shamu Stadium in Sea World. The key note speaker was Lindy Fordem Donahue, trainer to Shamu. Lindy was a former YMCA gymnast who attended YMCA Nationals in the 90’s as a 16 year old when it was held in San Diego. She said from that day as a gymnast attending Opening Ceremonies at Sea World with her team that she wanted to become a trainer to Shamu. She did just that. She spoke to the sold out stadium about dedication, perseverance, honesty, and hard-work. The Brookville Team was seated in the 3rd row of the “Soak Zone” at the stadium. After Lindy’s speech, Shamu and the other killer whales put on a fantastic and wet show for the girls and coaches.

The competition began the following day. Brookville’s Level 8’s competed first. The team consisting of Aisha Newsome, Ashley King, Ashley Edwards and Sammie Wright looked awesome. It’s a pretty incredible feeling knowing that you come from such a small town and have such talented athletes. Results for the first day of competition for the 8’s were as follows: Aisha Newsome-National Champion on Vault, 6th on Bars, 8th on Beam, 5th on Floor; Ashley Edwards- National Champion on Floor, 6th on Vault, 9th on Beam; Sammie Wright- 2nd on Floor; Ashley King- 11th on Beam.  Aisha Newsome and Ashley Edwards qualified to move onto All-Around Finals where Aisha placed 7th All-Around out of all the Level 8’s in the country. As a Team, Brookville Revolution placed 16th in the Nation!

The Level 9/10 Championship Division Team of Lanae Newsome & Emilie Turner competed directly after the Level 8 competition. It was a good day for both gymnasts. Uncharacteristic falls from Lanae on vault and Emilie on floor put them back a bit in the All-Around for the first day. At Semi-Finals for the 9’s, they both performed well. Lanae rocked her front handspring front double twist and her bars. Emilie hit her new combination on beam which is a hitch-kick aerial back handspring and rocked her floor routine. Lanae was 1st on floor after Prelims and Emilie was 1st All-Around in her division at Semi’s. Lanae went on to qualify for Floor Event Finals where she placed 4th. In the All-Around combined, Lanae placed 13th and Emilie placed 23rd. It was a very impressive showing of Brookville’s upper level talent. As a Team, the duo of Newsome & Turner placed 13th in the Nation!

The Level 7 gymnasts competing for Brookville Revolution were Hannah Frey and Sarah Fleming. Both girls looked great at their first optional level Nationals. Hannah took home 3rd on Vault, 7th on bars, and 12th All-Around. We are really looking at these two to place very high at next year’s Nationals.

The Level 6 Team consisted of Haley Frey and Lexi Hubler. Their competition was held the last session of the night. They competed until after 9pm which made for a very long day for all involved. The gymnast performed well as first year level 6’s.

Brookville can be very proud of the gymnasts! We would like to thank the community for all of their support in helping to get our team to San Diego this year. We are looking forward to next year’s Nationals which will be held in Toledo, Ohio.