Big podium wins at Gasparilla Classic

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 5 March 2019

A group of 39 gymnasts from Cayman’s Motions Unlimited brought home nine top-3 individual performances at the 2019 Gasparilla Classic held 22-24 February at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. This meet contends to be the largest in the United States attracting teams from most of the States and international teams of Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Columbia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela.

15-year-old Igor Magalhaes continues to dominate on the podium, finishing first overall among eight gymnasts in the 13+ Level 8 USAG Boys division. Magalhaes finished first in the floor, high bars and rings, while finishing second on the vault, third on the parallel bars and eighth on the pommel horse.

Karthik (Sebastian) Adapa, 14, finished third overall among eight Level 7 gymnasts, finishing first on the vault, while tying for second on the parallel bars with third place finishes in both the rings and high bar. Justin Spencer placed a Level 4 best first overall in the rings to finish fifth among 11 gymnasts, while Alex Hare scored a meet best tie for second on the parallel bars to finish sixth overall.

The girls team represented as the largest female Motions group at a competition for this season. The girls competed Xcel and AAU divisions with the Xcel Gold team hauling in the 2^nd Place Team trophy in the large team category, Level 3 AAU picking up a 3^rd Place Team trophy and Xcel Silver placing 4^th along with Level 2 finishing up 5^th among the teams.

In Xcel Silver were Sophie Aitken, Manon Guilbard, Ava Hickey, Sedona Souza, Ava Law, Flynne Lunt, Olivia Sanderson, Sophia Szucs and Addison Thomas. Xcel Gold included Natalie Bodden, Ciara Bradley, Sarah Bush, Morgan Crowley, Emmi Daykin, Meaghan Fowler, Bethany Hawkins, Maddalena Polloni, Sophia Simpson, Tai Wammer and Mia VanDevelde while Jaiden Gilbert competed Xcel Platinum. Level 2 girls were Cira Beraha, Ella Conen, Clara De Quintal, Kirsten Roderick, Diana Sankin and Riley Watson. Level 3 competitors were Emily Ching, Siena Clemens-Orr, Tianna Ebanks, Azania Osborne, Annabelle Zaplitney-Olynik, Alex Owen, Sienna Santiago, and Naomi Tibbetts.

Competing in the highest level among all female Motions competitors, 13-year-old Jaiden Gilbert won bronze overall among eight Xcel Girls Platinum gymnasts. Gilbert placed first overall on the beam, as well as third overall in both the vault and parallel bars.

Top three individual overall winners in the Xcel Gold category were gold medallist Morgan Crowley, silver medallists Sarah Bush, Emmi Daykin and Sophia Simpson and bronze medallist Tai Wammer. Fifteen year old Morgan Crowley was tops for her age-division, placing first overall out of 11 Xcel Gold gymnasts. Crowley won the parallel bars, beam and floor, while tying for fourth on the vault. Placing second in the same age division was Sarah Bush. Bush earned second-best marks on both the floor and the beam.

Mia Vandevelde earned gold on the vault as well as a second-place finish in the parallel bars delivering Cayman three gymnasts in the top five for the age-group. Sophia Simpson placed second overall among eleven Division 8 Group 4 gymnasts, earning top marks on the parallel bars with a second place finish on the floor. Emmi Daykin, 12, earned second place all-around in Division Six Group 8, placing second overall in both the vault and the floor. An equally strong performance from 13-year-old Tai Wammer ensured Cayman two of the top three positions in the same age-group. Wammer took the gold on floor and placed second overall on the beam.

10-year-old Tianna Ebanks delivered the best performance of Cayman’s eight level three gymnasts, placing second overall for her age-division. Ebanks placed a meet-best first overall on the floor, second on the parallel bars, and third overall in both the vault and the beam.

The team competes next in the Bermuda Challenge in March and the Florida Crown Championships in April.