The 2017 US Classic junior session has concluded and two of our Region 5 athletes finished in the top 7. Shilese Jones of Buckeye lead the way with a 4th place finish in the all around. Jones placed in the top 5 on vault and floor despite still recovering from a knee injury. In her first year of elite gymnastics, Cincinnati’s Lilly Lippeatt tied for 7th all around, and performed her way to a 4th place finish on floor. Both Jones and Lippeatt will move onto the P&G Championships coming up in 3 weeks in Anaheim, California.
Ellie Lazzari from GymNasti didn’t have the all around performance she was hoping for but finished in the top 3 on vault with a beautiful double twisting yurchenko and 8th place for her solid beam set. Nikki Beckwith of Buckeye completed her first season as an elite with a solid performance on 3 of the 4 events.
****Standings changed after the juniors who competed in the senior session were included. Shilese finished in 7th AA and Lilly dropped to a tie for 10th****
Link to full junior results https://usagym.org/PDFs/Results/w_17classic_jr.pdf
Here is a full recap of all 4 rotations from our 4 Region 5 Juniors:
The judges flag was raised and the 2017 US Classic Junior Session began with Lilly 
Lippeatt of Cincinnati up first on beam. Lilly had a solid set finishing up with her two back handsprings to double pike for a 13.15. GymNasti’s Ellie Lazzari competing with a labrum injury started off on one of her best events bars with a nice opening Maloney to Pac but unfortunately missed her tkatchev for a 11.35. Shilese Jones of Buckeye nailed a standing arabian to kick off her beam set and finished with a nice two back handspring double tuck combo for a 13.05. Nikki Beckwith of Buckeye began with a nice BHS layout but had significant wobble on her standing back tuck and finished with an 1 1/2 dismount for a 11.95.
In rotation two, Lazzari bounced back with a solid beam set and a 13.15. Jones rocked the house on floor opening with a huge double double and finishing with two well landed double backs (pike and tuck) for a 13.35. Nikki lead off on floor in flight 2 of rotation 2 with a nice double pike but rolled out of bounds on her double tuck 2nd pass and received a 10.5. Lippeatt opened her floor routine with a nice pike full in followed it up with a two combo passes of 1 1/2 to double tuck and 2 1/2 to front tuck and finished with a nice double pike to post a 13.15.
The 3rd rotation opened up with Buckeye’s Shilese Jones big double twisting yurchenko with a big hop for a 14.3. Beckwith vaulted a layout yurchenko for a 12.55 and Lippeatt yurchenko full for a 12.9. Last to go in rotation 3, Lazzari opened on floor with a full in tuck(low landing) and struggled with her 3rd and last pass putting hands down on her double back for a 10.75. Going into the last rotation, Shilese Jones sat in 2nd place and Lilly Lippeatt was tied for 9th both finishing on bars.
Beckwith finished her competition with a hit bar set which featured a jaeger (struggled in training on it), a Pac salto and finished with a double tuck for a 12.25. Strong finish for Lippeatt on the bars kicking the routine off with a nice Ray and closing with a stuck full out for a 13.05. Lazzari closed out her competition with almost stuck DTY for a 14.45. Jones finished up with a clean bars set and 12.75 despite catching her Pac salto a bit close and having to power kip cast up to keep the routine moving.
