USA trio wins silver medal at acrobatic gymnastics’ 2006 International Age Group Competition

The United States also had three additional groups that finished in fourth place, just shy of making the medals podium: men’s pair, 12-19 – Jake Kanavel of San Jose, Calif., and Lukas Martincik of Milpitas, Calif., who train at Paramount Tumbling and Acrobatics; women’s pair, 11-16 – Cassidy Dolstra of Tracy, Calif., and Jordan Rozsa of Livermore, Calif., West Coast Acrobatics; and women’s group, 11-16 – Marina Mihov of Pleasanton, Calif., Samantha Olivencia of Los Banas, Calif., and Kristen Sanchez of Livermore, West Coast Acrobatics.

To capture the silver medal, the threesome of Summers, Summers and Rockhill executed an excellent combined exercise to post a 28.400, placing just behind Russia’s 28.800. In the prelims, they finished third so they moved up one spot in the final round. The men’s pair of Kanavel and Martincik finished just 0.100 behind the third-place team, barely missing a medal.

The USA advanced competitors in every event it entered. Due to the rule that allowed only one pair or group per country to advance to the finals, several U.S. pairs/groups performed well in the preliminaries but were ineligible to advance to the finals. Here’s how the other pairs/groups fared in the prelims: women’s pair, 11-16 – Jordan Seto of San Jose and Courtney Olivencia of Los Banas, who train at West Coast Acrobatics, eighth place; women’s group, 11-16 – Ariel Walsh of Rosebud, Mo., Kayla Huesgen of Rosebud and Amber Kottwitz of Owensville, Mo., Mid America Acro & Tumbling, seventh; women’s group, 12-19 – Caitlin Cusano of El Dorado Hills, Calif., Makaela Bogowitz of El Dorado Hills and Paula Kidwell of Fair Oaks, Calif., California Acrosports Team, 10th.