Freedom Hall- Louisville, Kentucky
Video Gallery: Region 5 Athletes
This years edition of the Nastia Cup took center stage in Region 5. Freedom Hall in downtown Louisville, Kentucky was transformed into the podium framed competition arena that is common place at elite level events. The Nastia Cup is held in conjunction with the Winter Cup and Region 5 was represented by 5, all of which all competed at the 2022 Level 10 Nationals or the Wild Card.
Leading the way for Region 5 was the only athlete from our region with Nastia Cup experience. Hannah Scheible, All American Flames and soon to be Sooner, competed in the 2022 Cup. She had the highest vault score of the entire competition 9.9 for her huge front pike 1/2 (video below). Hannah had a strong start to the competition on floor with a 9.725 despite stepping out of bounds on her full in first pass. She found herself in contention for the title after vault but missed her jaeger on bars in the 3rd rotation dropping her to 11th in the all around.
video from USA GymnasticsAdy Wahl from Zanesville, had a bus full of fans come to support her efforts in her first Nastia Cup. She started with a bit shaky performance on beam and had a lot of extra power with a big hop on her Yurchenko 1 1/2 vault but finished strong with her new double layout dismount and 9.625 on bars.
Legacy Elite has had a long list of talented athletes compete at the Nastia Cup and they added two more to that list in 2023. Taylor DeVries, who will be a freshman at Oregon State in the fall, had some struggles in the competition but competed one of the only two layout full out dismounts on bars and the only triple full on floor and a solid 9.65.
Madison Stewart (aka Taz), from Legacy Elite, was amongst the top in the junior competition until her last event bars. However you would have never known it since she was not featured on the Nastia broadcast until the last rotation which was bars. Maddie is known for her power and her very nice Yurchenko 1 1/2 was tops in the junior division with a 9.8. Maddie finished in a tie for 8th in the all around despite her fall on her bars.
video from USA GymnasticsEsphyr Karen from Perfection has made huge improvements over the last year. Esphry was a wild card on floor at last years Level 10 nationals but has increased her difficulty. Esphyr had a “that’s how you do a triple flight” 2 handsprings layout step out which bared her gym name PERFECTION! But it was her very nice double layout off bars that helped her reach her top score of the competition at a 9.25 and a top 10 finish on the event.
