Two gymnasts from Ignite Gymnastics in Ignacio won all-around titles last weekend at the USA Gymnastics Xcel state championship meets at Active Athletics in Littleton.
Katelyn Juliano, 9, won the all-around title in the bronze junior B division.
Koralea Brown, 11, won the silver level Junior B all-around state title.
“Having two state champions out of Ignacio was pretty exciting,” said co-head coach Elizabeth Herring. “I don’t think the state expected it. It was a pretty big accomplishment.”
Juliano reached the podium in her four events, with a gold medal in the floor routine, a silver on the balance beam and bronzes on both the vault and uneven bars.
“Kate was like on a mission,” Herring said. “She went from event to event performing her best.”
While Juliano’s results left little doubt she would be crowned champion, Brown and her coaches didn’t realize she had won the all-around title until the final standings were read.
Brown won a bronze in the vault and finished fourth on the balance beam. The division had a lot of specialists who scored high in one event and dropped off in the others, with scores ranging from roughly 9.5 to 7.5.
“He age group was extremely tough,” Herring said. “Koralea was very consistently hovering around the 9.0 range. She was calm and just committed to doing her very best.”
The judges read the fifth-place finisher’s name first and it wasn’t Brown. Neither were the fourth- or third-place finishers.
“When they read the second-place finisher, and it wasn’t her, I was like, ‘Oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding me,’” Herring said. “That was extremely exciting. Her mother was jumping up and down (when they called her name in first). It was way more fun to find out at the last second.”
Other Ignite gymnasts who won medals at the meet:
- Havel Whitt, 10: a gold medal in her floor routine and a bronze in the senior B age group.
- Ariah Redfeather, 7: a silver medal on beam in the bronze junior A division.
- Karver Brown, 8: a silver on the vault in the silver division.
- Reagan Oelschlaeger, 9: a silver on the vault in the silver junior A group. Fifth place on the beam.
- Makenna Tso, 10: won silver on vault and fourth place in the all-around in the silver junior B.
Nearly all the 21 competing Ignite gymnasts had at least one top 15 finish, Herring said.
Other gymnasts with top five finishes were Hope Whitt, 6; Paisley Moore, 7; Reagan Zink, 6; and Amira Montoya, 12.
Gymnasts who finished with top 10 finishes were Payzlie Price, 5; Briar Oelschlaeger, 5; Sara Eidem, 7; Ivy Rhodes, 7; Karley Jefcoat, 8; Ana Rhodes, Alana Smith-Beissel, 8, Alicia Archuleta, 9 and Mattie Jo McCoy, 11.
Kirstyn Jemeson, 10, finished in the top 15 in the all-around.
Ignite’s silver team also finished fifth in the small team division.
In Xcel, bronze is the starting level for competition and silver is the next level up, followed by gold and platinum. Ignite also trains gold and platinum-level gymnasts, but their seasons don’t start until January. The age ranges for the divisions can fluctuate to spread the gymnasts out more evenly, but the junior A group is typically for 7- to 9-year-olds, and the junior B groups are for 9-to 11-year-olds.
Ignite opened in June, 2021. Alexandra Oelischlaeger is the gym’s other head coach while it also has dance and tumbling coaches.
This was the second time the gym, which trains about 80 gymnasts, has competed at the state championships. The bronze and silver state meet crowned 20 all-around champions in five sessions.
“The competition is very intense,” Herring said. “We, as a whole are already at a disadvantage because of our population, but we thought they did fantastic.”
