The Maryland Classic is one of the biggest invitationals on the East Coast, drawing in competitors from some of the country's best gyms: Hill's, Parkettes, and Capital. The competition is hosted by the Hill's Angels out of Gaithersburg, Maryland. This year's competition drew in almost 100 gymnasts for the Open Junior and Senior sessions. Both of these sessions were impressive, showcasing World Champion Courtney Kupets, World Bronze Medallist Katie Heenan, elites Corey Hartung and Sabrina Franceschelli, and a talented group of level 10 and potential elite gymnasts.

All Around:

In the Junior age 10-13 division, Mattie Kupinski won, beating out Kareen Kaveh of Hill's and Sherry Yang of Capital. Mattie had a great competition, hitting every event, especially bars where she nailed a piked Jaeger. Kareen was very impressive. This was a meet where she fell off beam (roundoff-layout mount) but nailed everything else (piked Yurchenko; Shaposhnikova on bars; double pike on floor), and she seemed really excited about it standing on the podium when she received her medals. Her floor exercise is set to fun and exciting Persian music, and she performs the choreography really well. Her teammate, Jennifer Iovino only competed bars. Alina Weinstein of Arena finished fourth; she has promising skills but was very inconsistent at this meet (piked Yurchenko; Pak on bars; Onodi to front aerial on beam; full-in and triple full on floor). Sixth was Nicole Lyons of Northeast, who attempted to dismount beam with a double front but sat it down.

In the age 14-15 division, Cassie Martin of Hill's had an incredible meet, hitting every single one of her routines and winning the all-around and bars (Tkatchev; Pak). In addition, she finished 2nd on beam and 7th on vault. Her great performance gave her spots in every event final that was to be held the day after the all-around. On vault, Cassie did a beautiful handspring front tuck. She had a fall on the first one, but stuck the second one for a 9.1. On bars she had a little problem on her combination, but covered well. Her nice lines and clean form are very impressive. She attempted a stalder 1/2-giant 1/1-tkatchev, but the combination ended up being a stalder-stalder 1/2-giant 1/2-giant 1/2-tkatchev. A beautiful pak salto was also in the routine! Beam was simply wonderful. She mounted with a switch leap (like Tabitha Yim) and also did a to switch ring leap, hit her series (ff- layout) and 2 1/2 twist dismount. On floor she landed all her tumbling passes (2 1/2 punch front; front layout + front layout 1/1 + punch front; double full) and danced beautifully. Brittney Morgan, who finished 2nd in the all-around and won vault and beam did really well also. She had a fall on her jaeger on bars but did a nice Hristakieva vault. On beam she dismounted with a bh-bh-double back and tumbled an Arabian double front, 2 1/2 punch layout, and double tuck. Capital's Caroline Shelley and Sarah Wilson finished third and fourth, though neither did anything particularly of note. Morgan Dennis of Arena finished fifth; like teammate Weinstein, she has some excellent skills but needs to make them more consistent (Yurchenko-full; giant full to Tkatchev to straddle back to handstand; fell on a triple full on floor). Sabrina Franceschelli finished seventh (vaulted a simple handspring- front tuck; nice running double front on fx). The rest of the Hill's girls, Teri Cole-Diamond, Casey McCarthy, and Anya Chayka also did very well. Parkettes had a lot of problems during the competition.

In the Senior age 16 division, Corey Hartung blew away the competition, scoring all above 9.0. She fell on her new Onodi on beam, where her aerial cartwheel from horizontal always seems to wow the crowd. Her new vault of a piked Lucconi was quite good. She also has a new floor routine to 'Bolero' from Moulin Roge, complete with her usual tumbling passes: whip to triple full, 2 1/2 punch full, and a Tarasevich. World Champion Courtney Kupets had a great showing on bars, scoring an incredibly high 9.85 with a hit routine but ended up falling on beam on her front tuck-back tuck combo and twice on floor (whip 1/2 + double front; double pike). She scratched vault. Katie Riggleman-Thomas of Parkettes and Gillian Coleman of Exxcel finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in the all-around. Hills' Monica Goldblatt placed fourth with a clean Tkatchev on bars.

In the age 17 division, Katie Heenan of Capital easily won competition, scoring a 9.725 on bars. She has beautiful lines and execution. Her Yurchenko full on vault was nearly perfect, with the exception of the landing. She also has a new floor routine to the music 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.' It was nice to see her do all-around because, in the past, she has opted to compete only bars and maybe another event. Her teammate Christine Robella finished 2nd behind her and did well on all the events (especially floor where she showed a double layout), but had some problems on beam. Jaime Demello of Exxcel finished 3rd all-around. Kara Dewhurst of Hill's finished 4th. She had a good competition with only a few problems here and there (piked Yurchenko; giant full + Gienger on bars; fall on double pike dismount). Chari Knight-Hunter of Hill's had a beautiful bars routine going until she fell out of a giant 1 1/2 (intended to be a Kim + Jaeger). Her beam was pretty nice though, and she had really nice form on almost everything! She looks to be in excellent shape!

Event Finals:

In the Junior section of event finals, Sabrina Franceschelli picked up two golds on bars and floor. Finishing off the champions were Morgan Dennis of Arena on vault (strong Yurchenko full) and Cassie Martin on beam. Cassie had a few problems in this competition as compared to the all-around, but she did very well. She fell on her first vault but stood up the second. Additionally, she almost went out of bounds on her 2 1/2 twist on floor but managed to stay in for the silver medal. Anya Chayka grabbed beam silver (wobble on Onodi), while teammate Brittney Morgan woke up sick Sunday morning and had to withdraw from finals.

In the Senior section, Hill's dominated most of the event finals. On vault, veteran Chari Knight-Hunter chucked a very nice Yurchenko full. Finishing behind her were Jaime Demello of Exxcel and Miki Seltzer of Chantilly. Courtney Kupets won bars, of course, with a 9.9; Kara Dewhurst's clean Gienger got her 2nd, with Corey Hartung taking third (cleaner routine) and Chari Knight-Hunter missing the medals in fourth (went for her Jaeger this time but fell). Beam was a splatfest, where 6 of the 8 finalists fell. Courtney and Kara managed to save their routines and placed first and second respectively. Corey again fell on her Onodi and Chari came off on her side somi. The top three on floor were relative unknowns: Gillian Coleman of Exxcel, Shawna Kelly of Chantilly, and Megan Tschida of Gleason.

Overall, the Maryland Classic is annually a fun meet; its classy organization usually makes up for its roster of lesser-knowns and very low, sometimes questionable scoring.

Photos © Lloyd Smith