Dynamic performances: Nationals await for a driven quartet of local gymnasts

Dynamic Gymnastics lived up to its name during the recent Region 2 Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.

Showing incredible growth and dogged determination, the team brought home 54 medals and seven titles while sending four gymnasts on to the next stage.

“This year we (have) a lot of really dedicated kids that are willing to persevere despite anything,” Dynamic Gymnastics coach Melanie Bixby said of the 14 gymnasts who competed in both Level 9 and 10 regional competitions. “This group of kids are very self-driven and self-motivated to get things done to an exceptional standard.”

Two Dynamic gymnasts look forward to the Level 9 USA Gymnastics Western Nationals this weekend in Coralville, Iowa. Two others prepare for the USA Gymnastics Developmental Nationals for Level 10s the following weekend in Daytona, Florida.

Level 10 gymnast Tianmei Dwyer, 17, set a high bar for the team at regionals, bringing home the uneven bars, balance beam and all-around championship titles.

Charlize Hall, 15, earned the vault championship title and finished second to Dwyer in the all-around rankings for Level 10 gymnasts.

Since November, Hall has been competing and training with torn ligaments in her ankle. Not wanting to mess up her season, Hall scheduled her surgery for after nationals.

“We tried to get it to heal all of last season,” Bixby said. “She’s actually getting Kevlar ligaments put in.”

With or without injuries, each gymnast was ready for competition season early, Bixby said.

“It was one of those things where I expected them to have an amazing season, and then they had weird mistakes throughout (competitions),” Bixby said.

To combat this, Bixby said she had her girls work on becoming “robotic” with their movements.

Through the approximately 20 hours a week each girl spends at the gym working on skills, they eventually got to a point where their movements were built on muscle memory rather than mental decisions.

At regionals, there were still some nerves, Ava Hamilton, 13, said. As a first-year Level 9 gymnast, this was her first chance to qualify for the Western Nationals.

“I’ve been to regionals before, so I was just trying to treat it like a normal meet,” Hamilton said.

By the end of regionals, Hamilton had earned the Level 9 regional beam championship and had qualified for Westerns.

The successes Dynamic gymnasts captured in regionals outweighed the many “weird” mistakes they made in previous meets this season, Bixby said.

“It was almost like they were so driven to success and trying to meet their own goals, they got in their (own) way and in their heads too much,” Bixby said.

For Hamilton, her goals extend beyond the next championship title.

“I want to be a college athlete,” Hamilton said. “I’ve been (in gymnastics) my whole life and I couldn’t imagine myself not doing gymnastics, especially with my teammates and coaches supporting me and being through it all.”

Spending upward of 20 hours a week with each other helps to create a family atmosphere, but according to Bixby, the open and accepting atmosphere of the gym leads to this comfort.

“We accept each and every one of them as who they are, and I think that they feel most comfortable here because they are not judged here, which is so ironic because gymnastics is completely about judgment,” Bixby said.

While a low score might sting in the moment, Dwyer said she looks more toward creating memories with her team at each meet.

“It was a big game changer when I realized that I won’t remember what I did in the last meet, but I’ll remember whether or not I went swimming after with my teammates,” Dwyer said. “(The memories are) something I will never forget, but what placement or if I fell – that’s something I won’t remember.”

Dwyer and Hall will compete at the Level 10 USA Gymnastics Developmental Nationals in Daytona, Florida. on May 11. This weekend, Hamilton and Gracie Allen will travel to Coralville, Iowa, to compete in the Level 9 USA Gymnastics Western Nationals.