A local gymnastics team can claim the title of best in the country after their first place finish at the United States Tumbling Association’s National Team trampoline competition in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Kenley Coats, Leah Hoffman, Karsyn Wardlow and Anna Muller of Stevens School of Dance and Gymnastics finished with the highest combined score in the intermediate level trampoline competition.
Dance coach Calla Kaufmann, whose grandmother Eleanor Stevens owns the studio and coaches the trampoline teams, says this is the studio’s first national team trophy.
“I think this is probably our 30th year attending Nationals cause we always have girls who qualify but we’ve never won an intermediate team trophy. We’ve had girls win individual trophies, but (this year) our team won the all around trophy which was awesome,” says Kaufmann.
The trampoline team competed against 147 other teams in the intermediate level. Kaufmann explained how the competition was judged…
“It’s based on difficulty, so difficulty of the pass, like how many flips, things like that. Aesthetics is the other part, straight legs, pointed feet, and sticking their landing. And they have to stay within a certain perimeter of the trampoline. There’s a red “x” in the middle of the trampoline and if they can hit that each time they jump they get a higher score,” Kaufmann explained.
Stevens’ sent 35 qualifiers to the national meet in trampoline, double mini and tumbling.