Washington Gymnastics hosted their umpteenth annual JO and College combined gymnastics competition, the Washington Open. Per tradition, the meet took place on the first weekend of the year in the auspicious Alaska Airlines Arena, more precisely, in Marv Harshman Court’s Hec Edmundson Pavilion Addition, at University of Washington.
Four GymACT teams were present at the first collegiate meet of the 2020 Road to Nationals competitive season. The Washington Gymnastics (Dawgs) graciously welcomed Arizona, Southern California and Northern California teams into the den. It was an amazing event with a great crowd and they in turn experienced a GREAT night of gymnastics.
Hey, it’s EARLY in the season and all teams made mistakes in a few not-so graceful moments: missed landings on floor, high bar releases and (not-quite) catches, sluggish pommel dismounts, almost there strength holds on rings, slipping off the board on vault, falls on and off the parallel bars.
AND, there was a LOT of fantastic gymnastics to be seen too! The meet was exciting. It was dramatic. It was a dawg-fight (with the Sun Devils) to the bitter end. Bitter to the locals, who, inspire of their valiant effort, finished the meet a mere 1.05 away from the top of the podium. Arizona took top honors with a 383.10, Washington in second (382.05), SoCal United finished third place, scoring a 340.00, and NorCal Condors (a few athletes short of a full roster) entered the season with a 229.80 team score.
“In every aspect, the meet was a compete success” stated the Husky head coach Giancarlo Mora during the GymACT monthly members conference call, just a couple days after the event. Nods of agreement and praise from all others in the meeting who had attended the meet. It was indeed a high-quality weekend. Even the weather cooperated… so yeah!
GymACT teams get to enjoy a little monopolized time on the national scoreboards as other conferences eagerly prepare for THEIR start of the season.
Individually, GymACT student-athletes are indulge in the early-season national focus. The coveted GOTW (gymnast of the week) spot was awarded (by coaches of all national programs) to Nick Garcia, of Arizona State University. Well deserved.