Kyla Ross
The all around champion and former Olympian gave clean routines on all 4 of the apparatus. On Vault, Kyla performed solid double twisting yurchenko but I’m anxious to
see her amanar and whether she's going to put it in for nationals/worlds. On the bars, Kyla received a massive 15.4. On beam, I was disappointed that I didn't see some of the connections she was working on at the national camp but once again a typical solid routine from Kyla. I think Floor Exercise was my favorite part about Kyla's routine. I love her new routine! Great music and great choreography (and she's not throwing her head back every 3 seconds like in her old floor) Her floor started out well until she got to her dismount, a double pike, in which she fell. Overall,
Simone Biles
Disappointing meet overall for Simone. She had a fall on the uneven bars and a very
wobbly beam routine. Her floor however
started out well with one of the highest double doubles I have ever seen. Nevertheless, she fell on her dismount, a
full in. She decided to opt out of vault
which was a smart idea I think. No doubt
she was flustered after her mistakes on the other apparatus and a mistake on
her vaults could have caused an injury. I, along with the rest of the gymternet, was definitely disappointed that we didn't get to see a Biles/Maroney battle on the vault but I guess we'll see who's better at nationals and who Marta decides to send to worlds.
Mckayla Maroney
Mckayla only competed on two events: Floor and Vault.
She debuted a new floor routine laced with her usual
dramatic music and dance. As seen in the camp videos, Mckalya now has a double
layout as her 1st tumbling run. Unfortunately, she went out of bonds on her new pass.
I have mixed feelings about her getting rid of her 3.5 twist
but she had many problems with that pass especially on the landing. Under the new CoP, gymnasts are not required
to combine 2 saltos in one tumbling run, so Mckayla (finally!) got rid of her
1.5 stepout to double back replacing it with a double Arabian (with perfect
form!) This is a very smart move in my opinion because the double arabian the
same value as her original pass and she almost always stepped out of bounders
on her double back and was always in danger of actually landing out of bounds
for an 0.5 deduction.
On the vault, Mckayla scored a 15.6 on her Amanar and a 15.425 on
her Mustafina and she won the vault competition.
Lexie Priessman
The girl who I once referred to as a "sloppier version of Simone Biles" definitely managed to impress me at the Classic.
On vault she did not compete an amanar but she did have a lot of power on her double twisting yurchenko. On bars, she delivered with a clean and well executed routine. She did not compete on the beam. The chicago native did however deliver with a solid floor routine. She debuted a new floor routine as well, with more mature music and dancing that wasn't as "juniorish" as her last floor. In her routine, she stepped out of bounds on her double double but was super high in the landing. Her 2nd pass, a double layout with a full twist, also was very high. The rest of her passes were also relatively clean. She won the floor exercise portion of the Secret Classic.
Mckayla Skinner
Mckalya, in my opinion, is the epitome of the gymnast with a high start value but horrid execution.
On vault, she competed 2 vaults, a Cheng (6.4) and a DTY and got second in the vault competition behind Maroney.
Floor: 13.05 (6.3 Difficulty)
After landing her double double layout, her double Arabian,
double double tucked, she fell on her 2.5 twist. She had low landings on both
of her double double passes and stepped/landed out of bounds on her double
double layout. Her double Arabian to stag
was perfect though. Like on the beam,
Skinner has trouble on her dance elements ESPECIALLY those split leaps. She doesn’t reach a 180 degree split on her
leaps and that could cause a lot of trouble for her, especially on the
international stage. Skinner's problems with her flexibility and inconsistency remind me of Kim Kelly, who even though placed high at Olympic trials was left off the team for her inconsistency and form errors. Skinner needs to clean up her execution or she'll be left out like Kim Kelly.
That being said I am extremely impressed with her difficult routines. The highlights of her competition definitely included her double twisting double layout on floor and her Arabian salto combination and a back full combination on beam. Sam Peszec and Amanda Borden were going on about how she has the difficulty but just needs to clean up her execution and consistency.
Brenna Dowell
The gymternet seems to have taken a liking to this
girl. She placed 9th last
year at Olympic trials so she’s without a doubt a great gymnast but we didn't see her best here. I think she could have beaten Kyla with a cleaner beam routine.
On vault she debuted a clean well executed amanar and received a well deserved 15.55. She also gave a good bars routine with impressive connections. She had a rather wobbly beam and missed a couple of
connections but managed to get through the routine. Like Skinner, she seems to have a bit of trouble hitting her splits which is a big no no on the international stage (just ask Shawn Johnson). On floor performed an impressive full twisting double layout and perhaps an even more impressive double front in the piked position and another in the tucked position.
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