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Trio of medals at provincials

A gymnast who missed the provincial championships last year because of an injured funny-bone, got the last laugh.
Mountain Shadows Gymnastics Club members had a strong showing in provincials recently winning three medals. From left are Mia Dionne, Callie Zacharias, Rebecca Lane and Lexie
Mountain Shadows Gymnastics Club members had a strong showing in provincials recently winning three medals. From left are Mia Dionne, Callie Zacharias, Rebecca Lane and Lexie Zacharias. Callie Zacharias has made Team Alberta for the Western championships.

A gymnast who missed the provincial championships last year because of an injured funny-bone, got the last laugh.

“It was weird competing at provincials again for me because I didn’t go last year because I had broken my elbow the weekend before,” said Mountain Shadows Gymnastic Club gymnast Rebecca Lane. “So, I just went in hoping for the best.”

She hoped her way to a silver medal in floor exercise of the JO 8 division at the Artistic and Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships in Red Deer on April 14-15.

She had nearly reached gold. Her score of 9.3 held up until the second-last of 21 competitors.

Lane overcame more than an injury, she also nailed a tough manoeuvre.

“My double twist has been giving me issues the last couple of meets,” Lane said. “This time it went really well. I didn’t go out of bounds and I stuck it pretty much cold.”

Lane, a Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School student, had finished third in the floor at the 2016 provincials, however that was at the lower Level 6.

It was old-fashioned grit that got her back on the podium.

“Rebecca has been in the gym every single day and she has worked hard,” said Mountain Shadows coach Kiera Schrader-Balson “She has worked very hard with physio and doctors to make sure the skills she is working on in the gym isn’t going to make the injury worse.

“Her goal was to prove that she could be among the best and she came away with a silver medal… She’s a great role model in the gym.”

Mountain Shadows’ Mia Dionne came home from Red Deer with a third-place in the vault in the JO 6 division.

She’s opened the vault this season.

She had previously won the gold medal at the Alberta Winter Games in Fort McMurray in February.

“I did a front handspring [at provincials], it wasn’t quite as good as my one at Winter Games, but I was still pretty happy with it,” said the St. John Paul II Collegiate student.

Dionne finished fourth overall, which is the combined score in the four disciplines, floor, vault, beam and bars.

Lexie Zacharias, a Grade 9 student at SJPII, thought she could have done better, but was still pleased with her bronze medal in the beam and seventh-place overall at JO 8.

“Beam has always been my best,” Zacharias said. “[AT JO 8] it was definitely higher skills than I have done before.”

She had to make a quick adjustment during mid-practice to help her keep her balance during warm-up on the thin beam.

Zacharias, who is hearing impaired, typically works out and competes with one hearing aid for comfort reasons. However, during her warm-up minutes before the main event in Red Deer she had two on.

“In the middle of her warm-up, she looks at me kind of panic and is trying to rip her ear out of her competition hair, throws it to me and looks at me and goes ‘this is better,”’ Schrader-Balson said. “Then she did her competition with only one ear on and she nailed it.”

Zacharias explained body senses helps with balance.

“If you are used to having one of them off, you know how to line up your body with it,” she said. “When I had two on it kind of threw me off a bit. It’s like if you stand on the beam and use only one eye, you will line up to one side.”

She competes with both hearing aids on in the other three events.

Callie Zacharias vaulted herself to the podium at provincials. Her Yurchenko layout in the vault was strong enough for a silver medal at the JO 9 level.

“Vault is my second-best event,” said Callie, the oldest Zacharias. “My best is the floor. At provincials my floor routine felt really, good, but the judges weren’t very nice.”

She got fourth on the floor.

The gymnasts are far from done – some of them have has many as three meets left in the season.

Their next meet Mountain Shadows gymnasts get to enjoy some home-cooking as the club hosts the annual Mountain Magic Invitational, May 3-6 at the Pason Centennial Arena.

The meet will have more than 650 athletes, making it the largest in Alberta.

For more information about the Alberta provincials go to sportzsoft.com

Callie Zacharias qualified for Team Alberta for the Western Canadian championships by finishing second overall at trials in Edmonton in early April at the JO 9 level.

“I think I want to try and just clean everything up and hopefully this will be my best meet of the year because Westerns is the biggest me for me,” said the Grade 10 student at Holy Trinity Academy. “Hopefully we can get gold for Team Alberta in JO 9.”

She is making a return trip to the capital this week for Westerns.

Zacharias was a member of the gold medal Team Alberta squad in 2017 in Brandon, Man. She was first in floor at Westerns last year. She was second in the floor at trials this season.

“I am the Queen of Seconds,” Zacharias said with a laugh.

She is optimistic she can qualify for finals at Westerns.

Schrader-Balson said Callie can make the finals – finishing in the top six on the opening day – in all four of the events at Westerns.

This is the third time Zacharias has qualified for the Western championships.

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