Aspen Gymnastics Team hosts demonstration Thursday
Courtesy photo |
The award-winning Aspen Gymnastics Team will host a special demonstration at 5 p.m. today at the Red Brick gym in downtown Aspen.
The team invites the public to the gymnastics demonstration program featuring the gymnasts of the team.
The Aspen Gymnastics Team is coming off the optional-level season, which concluded this month.
Dominique Rosa, Madison Cheo and Morgan Leasure, all Aspen High School students, competed in the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Program.
Their coaches are John Bakken and Drew Barr.
For Rosa, a 16-year-old AHS sophomore, the highlight of the season came at the Level 8 State Championships in Denver in March.
She won the Senior Division state championship in floor exercise and finished second in all-around en route to qualifying to the Regional Championships in Fort Worth, Texas.
Rosa capped her season at the huge regional meet, collecting a top-10 finish in the floor exercise.
Dominique Roses hopes to compete as a Level 9 next season.
Aspen High School senior Madison Cheo concluded her decorated career as an Aspen gymnast at the Level 9 State Championships in March.
She had two top-10 finishes — eighth on floor and 10th on beam.
“In 22 years as coach of Aspen Gymnastics, only five gymnasts have competed all the way through their senior year in high school,” coach John Bakken said. “The commitment and training at the upper levels is very demanding and time-consuming, and it’s a great accomplishment to have had such a long competitive career in the Junior Olympic Program.”
He said she is considering pursuing gymnastics at the club level at the University of Michigan, where she will enroll in the fall.
Competing in her first season as a Level 10, the highest level in the Junior Olympic Program, Aspen High School freshman Morgan Leasure had an outstanding season, Bakken said.
At the state championships in March, Morgan hit routines in all four events and placed in the top-10 in three events. She was seventh in the all-around.
Leasure qualified for the Regional Championships in Denver.
“At regionals, Morgan was up against some of the top gymnasts in the nation,” Bakken said. Leasure will compete as a Level 10 again next season with a goal of qualifying through to JO Nationals, one of the top meets in the nation.
