Wieber Walks Away With Jr. Title
June 07, 2008Prelim leader Jordyn Wieber (Gedderts) put together four near-flawless routines and walked away with her first junior national title at the U.S. National Championships this morning in Boston by a whopping 1.55 margin (120.6 two-day total).
Starting on floor, Wieber, just 12 years old, powered through her crowd-pleasing Elvis music mix, then moved on to vault where she stuck a Yurchenko double twist cold. Wieber finished on beam were she was rock solid (one-arm back handspring, layout; back pike; standing full; double pike dismount) for her highest total of the meet, 15.45 (6.1 “A”).
“I do get a little bit nervous,” the super-calm Wieber admits, “but I just try and pretend I’m in practice and, I guess, it works.”
Samantha Shapiro (All Olympia) showed off the best toe point and form of the meet, but a botched floor routine (fall on mount for 13.8) kept her from contending for the top spot. (Shapiro was only one tenth out of the lead coming into today’s finals.)
“I wasn’t really happy with my floor routine,” Shapiro said of her day two start, “of course, the fall, and then I didn’t really forget about it and move on, which is a lesson for me. On vault, I just tried to put it out of my mind and start fresh and clean.”
Despite the shaky start, Shapiro’s Start Values kept her firmly in second (119.05).
Shapiro’s best effort of the day came on bars, where she has the meet’s highest Start Value—6.6; a total that would put her amongst the top four seniors—as well as excellent execution. The effort earned Shapiro a meet-high 15.9.
“Really?,” Shapiro said when told her bars score after the meet. “Yeah, that is, [good].”
She was even more shocked to learn her bars “A” score was lower only than Nastia Liukin, Chellsie Memmel and Bridget Sloan (Jana Bieger also has a 6.6). “Umm, wow, I didn’t know that,” she noted, her eyes widening.
As for her superior execution, Shapiro demurred. “Thanks for saying so,” she said. “I definitely work it at it. It’s all my coaches, Artur (Akopian) and Galina (Marinova). Whatever I am, I am a product of their hard work.”
In addition to the all-around, Wieber and Shapiro also split the event titles, with Wieber winning vault and floor, and Shapiro claiming bars and beam.
“I feel great,” Wieber said. “Three national titles, three more gold medals. I’ve got quite a few [medals] now, but these are kind of my favorites.”
And where will those medals go? “For the first couple weeks they go on the mantle, then I put them up on hooks around my room,” Wieber said, adding with a laugh. “I probably need to get a couple more hooks. I’m kind of running out of room.”
The field fell off quickly behind the top two, with third-place Cassie Whitcomb (114.6, Cincinnati) a full six points behind winner Wieber.
Asi Peko (Brown’s Las Vegas), Amanda Jetter (Cincinnati), Rebecca Clark (GAGE), Kamerin Moore (Gedderts), Randi Lau (What’s Up), Hallie Mossett (All Olympia), Annette Miele (Parkettes), Sabrina Vega (Dynamic) and Briley Casanova (WOGA) filled out the top 12 that make up the U.S. Junior National Team. (Last year’s junior champ, Rebecca Bross, is also likely to be petitioned to the National Team.)
In this Olympic year, the junior season effectively ends with these National Championships. For Shapiro, who just turned 15, it’s the end of her junior experience—she’ll go senior next season—and her plans are to upgrade in preparation for moving up.
“I’m going to go back and start training again right away,” Shapiro said. “I’m working on upgrading my vault to a 1-1/2, or even a double. I want to get it up there.
“I’m so excited to go into the senior ranks,” she added. “So excited to compete with all of them.”
Wieber, now at her third USAs, won’t be senior age-eligible until 2011.
And how will she manage the long wait? “I’ll just try and take it one junior competition and a time,” Wieber said. “It is kind of hard.”
Like Shapiro, Wieber will go home and work on boosting her already high difficulty, adding back in the laidout double-double bars dismount—“We took it out because I was having some problems with it,” she explained—and adding "some harder tumbling on floor.”
“I just want to keep improving,” Wieber summed up simply.
Though after seeing her composed and confident performance at the Agganis Arena this week in Boston, it’s hard to imagine how much better Wieber can get.
