THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996 TAG: 9602080138
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, BEACON SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
WHEN BEACH DISTRICT gymnasts begin the culmination of an entire season with Saturday's district competition at Cox, they might be getting lulled into a false sense of security.
Beginning at 10 a.m., qualifying spots for next weekend's Eastern Region meet at Warwick High will be at stake.
To advance to the region level from districts, the standards are the same as they have been for the last couple of years. But to make it from the region to the Group AAA meet Feb. 23-24 at South Lakes High, the ante will be raised.
The result will undoubtedly be fewer Beach gymnasts at the state meet.
The old standard was changed, according to the Virginia High School League's Claudia Dodson, because principals felt too many competitors were advancing.
``It was becoming warped,'' Dodson said. ``We want to accommodate the efforts of the youngsters who excel, but the numbers were getting so high.''
In last year's state meet at Ocean Lakes, there were 57 competitors in the floor competition. There were 48 on uneven bars and 46 on balance beam.
Not that many will make it this year.
The old standard - that will still be used to get to region - were for the top eight gymnasts in any individual event, and any others scoring a 9 or better, to advance.
This year, the top eight in each event will advance to state, but for any others to move on, a score of 9.2 on vault, 9.3 on bars and beam, and 9.4 on floor will have to be met.
Four all-arounds will advance, but the standard of 35 total points for anybody out of the top four will be bumped up to 36.95.
``We took the average score for the top five in each event from the 1991 state meet through last year's state meet to come up with the standards,'' Dodson said. ``To set next year's standards, we will drop 1991 and add this year's scores.
``It will be an ongoing thing.''
If last year's scores are any indication, only the top eight in each event and the top four all-arounds will advance. At last year's region meet, no gymnast out of the top four all-arounds scored 36.95. In fact, only region all-around champion Michelle Alexander of Kellam met the mark.
In individual competition, no gymnast past the top eight in any of the four events met the new standards to move up.
So instead of 57 floor competitors at this year's state meet, there will probably only be 32 - eight each from the four regions.
Like everything else today, the down-sizing isn't being met with great approval.
``My athletic director was told that the coaches had voted on it,'' Kempsville's Dottie Labahn said. ``I was like, `We did?' I sure don't remember voting on it.''
``It's going to hurt the areas that have so many good gymnasts,'' Cox's Melody Hartranft said.
Dodson said that the matter was brought up by the principals, whom she added wished for even harsher changes.
``They wanted us to change it to the top five instead of eight,'' Dodson said. ``But I didn't want to change it that drastically.''
In actuality, numbers at state won't be lessened as much as you might think because of another change for this year's meet.
All Group A and AA schools will participate in a meet in Harrisonburg with the top eight in each event and the top four all-arounds advancing to the state meet.
In other words, the state meet has been declassified and there will be at least 40 gymnasts in every event - giving the appearance that the AAA numbers were made more difficult to make room for A and AA gymnasts.
``This will only be for Saturday's individual competition, not the team portion (on Friday),'' Dodson said. ``We used to have all three groups at the state meet together, but the A and AA kids had their own state champions.''
Now, state all-around hopefuls like Alexander and Kellam teammate Brooke Sawyer will have to deal with a few A and AA private club hot shots as well as a significant number of AAA toughies.
But before they can get there, they must get past the district meet and onto region.
In the all-around competition, Alexander and Sawyer are the clear-cut favorites - having registered scores a point higher than the nearest competitor. With the standard to get to region still at 35, as many as 10 other gymnasts could advance.
In the team portion of the competition, defending champion Cox will battle it out with Kellam for the title although the top two teams advance to the next level. Cox was last year's state runner-up, while Kellam captured the team title the year before.
Salem and Kempsville will force the issue.
``Anything can happen,'' Labahn said. ``We proved that last year,'' taking second place in the district and region.
Salem, however, is the only team other than Cox and Kellam to score more than 140 points in a meet. But the Sun Devils' high total of 140.45 is far shy of Kellam's high of 145.3 and the Falcons' 145.25.
While the Beach gymnastics championships are Saturday, Beach swimmers are holding their first district championship meet today at the Princess Anne Rec Center.
The competition will feature some tight matchups for both boys and girls team titles.
The consolation finals are scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., with championship finals immediately after. ILLUSTRATION: File photos by CHARLIE MEADS (left)
and PETER D. SUNDBERG (above)
In the all-around competition, Kellam teammates Brooke Sawyer, left,
and Michelle Alexander are the clear-cut favorites - having
registered scores a point higher than the nearest competitor. With
the standard to get to region still at 35, as many as 10 other
gymnasts could advance.
by CNB