Xcel State— Congratulations to our Xcel team who completed their first season this past weekend. Four gymnasts competed and three of the four earned medals. In all this season, we had 54 gymnasts medal at state championships, by far and away our highest ever. The following gymnasts won medals at the Xcel state championship meet:
Anna P. — Xcel Silver, 7th place vault, 5th place bars
Kathryn R. — Xcel Silver, 6th place vault
Ashley W. — Xcel Diamond, 3rd place bars
The Xcel gymnasts will continue to train in preparation for next season. There will be an Xcel Gold division, as well as Xcel Silver for next year and any current Level system gymnasts are welcome to try out Xcel if interested. Currently, Xcel gymnasts train 4-5 hours per week and will compete in 5 meets next season.
AAU Nationals Deadline Extended — The AAU has extended the deadline for any one wishing to enter AAU Nationals. We have until May 11th, so if you haven’t registered and want to go, please do so. Entry fee is $85. The following gymnasts are registered for AAU Nationals (if your gymnast should be on the list, please let us know):
Essence Burrows
Bradyn Fowler
Hallie Fowler
West Fowler
Emily Grining
Caelyr Grining
Aaliyah Krause
Norah Tait
AAU Junior Olympics — The registration deadline for AAU Junior Olympics is June 1. We expect the majority of our team to compete in this, given the proximity. The competition is in Des Moines, Iowa (approximately 5 hours away). The competition dates are July 30-Aug. 1. Gymnasts will also be competing in a team performance competition, similar to a summer show, and we expect to have a few adults taking part in the competition. As of now, the following gymnasts are registered for the meet (again, if you think your gymnast should be on the list, let us know):
Aniyah Brown
Bradyn Fowler
Hallie Fowler
Emily Grining
Caelyr Grining
Nadia Jennings
Ella Johnston-Fodor
Lilly Johnston-Fodor
Jordan Morrissey
Xcel gymnasts are welcome to compete in this competition. Registration fee is $85 and includes the entry to the team competition.
2014 Team Banquet — The date is set for the team banquet. It will be at noon on Sunday, June 29 at the Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee. The cost for gymnasts (who competed in at least two meets this season) is free and additional guests are $15. We will have water park tickets and the costs available for $16 per person (gymnasts will have to pay for water park passes should they wish to swim). This is a discount of the normal $26. We expect all team gymnasts to be at the banquet. Coaches are free for the banquet and must pay for additional guests and water park passes for their entire party.
2015 Traveling Meet Opportunities — Wildcard Gymnastics will have three opportunities for travel in the 2014-15 season. Please plan accordingly if you would like to travel.
We will be offering a traveling regular season USAG meet and two summer-time AAU competitions for girls. The only opportunity for boys will be one of the AAU summer meets.
The first competition we are offering is the 2015 Aloha Gymfest, January 16-18. This event will offer competition for Levels 3-10. There will be no Level 2 competition, Xcel competition or boys’ competition. Any Level 2 gymnast wishing to compete at this meet will be prepared to compete Level 3. We did this at this year’s meet in Cancun and both gymnasts who competed Level 3 won their age division.
The cost for this meet is $100 per gymnast and will not be included in any gymnast’s meet fees. Those will be due by October 1. Meet fees are fully refundable by the end of the calendar year. So if you are on the fence about going, please go ahead and register. (It’s going to be lots of fun!)
We will not attend this meet if there isn’t enough interest. We would need at least four gymnasts/families to attend. Wildcard Gymnastics will not be making any travel arrangements for this competition, but we will make recommendations and help with travel decisions. At this point, it looks like flights are running approximately $700 per person from Chicago (and Chicago flights aren’t much more than flights from the west coast) and decent lodging can be found for $150 per day. There will be a host hotel that has discounts, but that information isn’t yet available.
Unlike the Cancun meet, Aloha Gymfest is a USAG-sanctioned competition. It will have judges who are trained in judging USA Gymnastics competition. Last year, there were four teams from Austrailia, three from Canada, one from Great Britain, three from Japan, seven from Hawaii, seven from California, one from Oregon, one from Montana, one from Utah and one from Minnesota. All foreign teams will be competing under USA Gymnastics rules and will have USA Gymnastics memberships. This is a decent sized competition, unlike Cancun. Last year, there were 29 Level 3s, 41 Level 4s, 20 Level 5s, 35 Level 6s, 56 Level 7s, 50 Level 8s, 31 Level 9s, 24 Level 10s (286 total gymnasts). There is also an athlete beach party as part of the event on January 19, which is on Martin Luther King Day.
The summer AAU meets are the typical meets that we usually participate in, Age Group Nationals and Junior Olympics. These are successful meets as we’ve won nearly 100 total gold medals at these meets and have had an All-Around champion at Junior Olympics each of the three years we’ve participated in.
The 2015 AAU Age Group Nationals will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, next summer, likely the third week of June. Cost will likely be $85 and will be due by May 1, 2015. All boys’ and girls’ levels (including Xcel) will be held at this meet.
AAU Junior Olympics will be held in Hampton Roads, Va. The duration of the competition will be July 29-Aug. 8, 2015, with the specific dates for gymnastics competition to be determined later. Costs will likely be $85 and will be due by June 1, 2015.
2014-15 Meet Schedules — Normally we would have a fall meet schedule out by now, but the state hasn’t released the schedule yet. Please be patient with us. What we can tell you is what we expect the meet fees to be for the season (barring any changes in meet costs from the state board). We expect meet fees to be:
Level 2: $195 (includes the pre-season meet, four regular-season meets, state and all USA Gymnastics and AAU memberships for the 2014-15 season)
Level 3: $435 (includes the pre-season meet, seven regular-season meets, team entries, state meet entry, and all USA Gymnastics and AAU memberships for the 2014-15 season)
Level 4: $450 (includes the pre-season meet, seven regular-season meets, team entries, state meet entry, and all USA Gymnastics and AAU memberships for the 2014-15 season)
Level 5: Will be discussed on a case by case basis with the few Level 5s that we have pending on how many meets the gymnasts will be competing.
Meet fees can be paid in three monthly installments. Gymnasts will be billed on July 15, August 15 and September 15 in the following amounts:
Level 2: $65
Level 3: $145
Level 4: $150
If you wish to pay meet fees in full, please do so by the July 15 deadline as we will have meet fees due to some competitions in early August.
