© John Cheng
BOSTON, Mass., June 5, 2008 – Jordyn Wieber of Dewitt, Mich./Geddert’s, leads the junior women’s all-around with a 59.950 after the first day of competition at the 2008 Visa Championships at Agganis Arena at Boston University. The senior women’s first day of competition is tonight at 7 p.m. ET.
“My main goal is to win the competition,” Wieber said. “I made a couple of mistakes that I’ll try to improve upon on Saturday.”
Samantha Shapiro of Los Angeles/All Olympia is a close second with a score of 59.850. In third is Cassie Whitcomb of Cincinnati, Ohio/Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, with a 57.450.
“It feels great to have done well today,” Shapiro said. “I’ve been looking up to gymnasts for a while and now I’m one of the older juniors. It feels cool.”
In second behind Shapiro by just 0.1 points after three rotations, Wieber pulled into first place with her score of 15.050 on her uneven bars routine that included a full twisting double layout dismount.
Wieber’s 14.700 on her double Yurchenko vault was the highest vault score of the day, and she also had the best score on uneven bars. She posted a 15.150 on balance beam and a 15.050 on floor exercise.
Shapiro’s scores of 15.750 on balance beam and 15.200 on floor exercise topped the field. She stuck a round off double pike dismount on balance beam and performed a nice double Arabian on the first pass of her floor exercise routine. Shapiro earned a 14.050 on vault and a 14.850 on uneven bars.
Rounding out the top five in the all-around were Asi Peko of Henderson, Nev./Brown’s Las Vegas, in fourth at 57.300 and Amanda Jetter of Milford, Ohio/Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy, in fifth at 56.800.
The final day of junior competition is June 7 at 10:30 a.m. Scores from both days of competition are combined to determine the U.S. junior champions, and the top 12 gymnasts in the all-around will be named to the U.S. Junior National Team. For full coverage of the 2008 Visa Championships, click here.
Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Its mission is to encourage participation and the pursuit of excellence in the sport. Its disciplines include men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics.