An Okotoks gymnast cast quite the shadow in her final trip to westerns.
Mountain Shadows Gymnastics’ Brooke Spurway posted a pair of personal best finishes in winning gold in beam and silver in floor in her final trip to the Western Canadian Artistic Gymnastics Championships last weekend in Langley, B.C.
“It’s really special to me and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Spurway said. “For this gym, we make banners if we get first place overall in any event or all around at provincials or anything special at westerns or nationals.
“To get a first place or even a second place for an event final at westerns, that means a lot because since I was a little girl, I always looked up to those girls on the banners.”
The Okotokian, who is moving onto post-secondary with an acrobatics and tumbling scholarship to the Wingate University Bulldogs in North Carolina, hit personal bests in the event finals, scoring a 9.325 in beam and 9.425 in floor.
“I was just really consistent on beam,” she said. “I wasn’t as nervous as I usually am, because it was for me, it wasn’t for my team (at that point). For team comp, I was competing for their scores, I was competing for myself in the individual finals and that took some of the pressure off.
“I was a lot more confident which made me more solid on beam and made me go out a lot harder with my skills.”
The floor event was next and Spurway had a good feeling going in.
“To go out there in event finals and just competing for myself, I knew I was going to do really well in floor,” she added. “I didn’t know how well, I watched the other girls and thought, ‘Wow, they’re amazing, I don’t know if I can top that.’”
Spurway also contributed to Team Alberta Level 10’s silver medal performance in the team event.
Ava Serediuk, a Mountain Shadows athlete competing in her first westerns, also took home a silver medal as part of the team event for Alberta’s Level 9 athletes. Serediuk had a personal best and went four-for-four in her events for the first time as a Level 9 competitor.
For more information on Mountain Shadows, visit mountainshadowsgymclub.com.
