GAGE gymnasts in contention at junior nationals - Friday, August 18, 2006

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Some say winning isn't everything. To hear the best American gymnasts tell it, winning isn't anything. At least not this week.

Defending champion Nastia Liukin took advantage of Chellsie Memmel's watered-down vault routine to capture the lead after preliminaries of the women's Visa national championships Thursday.

Liukin finished the night with 62.6 points in the sport's new scoring system to take a whopping 1.1-point lead over Natasha Kelley and move 1.55 points ahead of Memmel, the reigning world champion.

Meanwhile in the junior national championships, members of Great American Gymnastic Express in Blue Springs made some noise on the opening day of competition.

Ivana Hong of Blue Springs finished the preliminary round in fourth place in the all-around with a score of 58.45. She finished second in the balance beam with a 15.35 total behind all-around leader Shawn Johnson (15.80), who also finished first in the vault and floor exercise. Hong also finished sixth in the uneven bars at 14.80, a tie for 12th in the floor exercise (14.20) and 19th in vault (14.10).

Sarah DeMeo of GAGE is in sixth place overall at 57.95. Her top finish was a tie for sixth in the floor at 14.35. DeMeo also tied for seventh with teammate Rachel Updike on the beam (14.75), was 11th in the bars (14.55) and tied for 16th in the vault (14.30).

Updike, whose best finish was on the beam, currently is in 13th place in the all-around at 56.60. Erica Smith of GAGE is 28th. Her best finish Thursday was a tie for 18th in the floor exercise.

Following Johnson in the juniors all-around are Bianca Flohr and Samantha Peszek.

Two groups from Acro Explosion in Blue Springs will compete today in the Acrobatic Gymnastics National Team Trials. Mia Medina, Allison Mock and Megan Muehlberger will compete together in the women's group competition while Mallory Henthorn and Savannah Shields will combine to compete in the women's pairs event. This competition and last month's national championships will determine the 2007 national team.

Meanwhile, the seniors gymnastics competition Thursday had more the feel of a preseason football game rather than a meet with a national championship on the line.

Memmel, for instance, simply wants to nurse her ailing shoulder back to health in time for World Championships in October. Liukin wants to put the finishing touches on upgrades to three of her four routines, all designed to keep her on top for October, as well.

"I'm definitely not here to win nationals," Liukin said. "It's not my goal. My goal is to come here, try out the new routines, make the world team and get ready for world championships."

Not that there's anything wrong with that. The Americans are the best in the world and succeeding on the biggest stages - including the Olympics in two years - is their main goal.

Memmel and Liukin dominated last year at worlds, finishing within .001 points of each other in the all-around.

Alicia Sacramone is the defending world champ on floor. She was in sixth place heading into Saturday's finals and knows winning this week is probably out of the cards, given her still-improving bars routine.

"I'd like to be a great all-around gymnast," Sacramone said. "That's definitely one of my goals."

Memmel is already that, but when she hurt her shoulder warming up on bars before an event in April, she had to take a break. She was ahead after three events, but watered down her vault, only rotating once off her roundoff-back handspring.

That knocked her down into third place. Nobody seemed upset.

"I agreed with that" decision, said national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, who was encouraged to see Memmel perform so well on bars.

But does an athlete of Memmel's stature cringe when she knows she's intentionally doing things that could take her out of the running for a title?

"No, not at all," she said. "I still want to go out and compete to the best of my ability. That's all I think about."

Among those who might really be excited to win this week are Jana Bieger, who was tied for third with Memmel, and Kelley, a newcomer on the senior scene who tied with Bieger for the title at a warmup event earlier this summer.

"It's something you try not to focus on," Kelley said. "But yeah, it would definitely be awesome."

Regardless of this week's results, nobody will doubt that Memmel and Liukin are America's two best gymnasts.

Memmel's bars routine was strong -- her lines straight and crisp, her release moves perfect. She winced in pain after one grab, but other than a minor step back on the dismount, it was a great set -- rewarded with a high 6.4 difficulty rating and an overall score of 15.5.

Liukin had a 16.4 on bars and a 16.3 on beam, the two highest marks of the night.

She and Memmel are remarkably different gymnasts. Memmel is a powerful jumper who seems to want to simply get through the dance moves and pirouettes so she can show off her power game. Liukin is more the graceful ballerina, a technician with moves you'd more expect to see in Romania or Russia than the United States.

Style aside, they both have a knack for winding up in the same place at the end -- on top -- when the stakes are the highest. The biggest question is whether they'll still be there for the Olympics in two years, when Memmel will be 20 and Liukin 18.

Much less important are this week's results.

"I just wanted to come out and see where I am in my training," Memmel said. "It's a good place right now."