Aloha Invitational

This past weekend my Twisters girls traveled to Santa Clara to compete at Airborne's Aloha Invitational.  We officially had four sessions in one day but because I don't work with the 5's (that will change on Wednesday!) I didn't have to be there in the morning.  Instead I got up just as early but went to the gym for the athlete warrior class and to coach the level 4 girls who aren't quite ready to compete. After that I had lunch with Alex and then finally made my way over, catching the end of the second session.

When it was finally time for me to get into action it was about 2pm and the level 6's were up.  They started on floor, ended on beam, and overall it was okay.  There was nothing spectacular and we still have a long ways to go before State, but I think it was a good thing for the girls to see where they stack up against some tougher competition.  We have 3/5 of the team qualified to State right now, with one meet remaining...time to put in some hard work!!

The level 4's are always fun to work with and they participated in the final session of the day.  They also started on floor...all 17 of them at one time.  Not all of them are competing all-around so we were able to push some through a bit quicker, but the majority of the time we were all together.  I ended up with two bar champions, we had a girl compete floor for the first time (and she ROCKED it!), and we qualified two more girls to State.  As a team we came in second behind San Mateo, who looked great all day long.  The girls look more comfortable with competition which is important as we head down the final stretch and as the bar coach, I really think we've improved a lot on that event as the season has progressed.  The Twisters home meet is next in two weeks...hopefully the comfort of home will help some of the girls step up and qualify if they haven't already.

This weekend was also Stanford's Reunion Homecoming, which means that campus was packed with alumni and that SWG had a gathering yesterday morning.  I got bagels and coffee for everyone who was meeting at the gym at 10am and we were able to watch a little bit of practice and mingle before we organized a Q&A panel.  It was fun to answer all the questions the girls had, though weird to finally be on this side.  Afterwards I stayed behind to talk with one of the senior captains and two hours later I finally made my way home.  There was something in the air yesterday that really made it feel like autumn and I absolutely LOVED it; fall is my favorite season and I'm so glad it's finally here.  I celebrated by going to Target to get a pumpkin scented candle and Halloween decorations, among other things.  I went for an evening run, came home to a citrus salmon salad that Megan made, and then my roommates and I capped off the evening by watching The Lion King, which was epic.