Dear Gymternet - Journals from Elena Arenas (Entry #9 February 2015)

Dear Gymternet, 

This month has been the best! I competed some new skills at a local meet and I won the WOGA Classic International session! 

At the local meet I competed a Maloney on bars and a piked full-in on floor for the first time. It wasn't an elite meet, but it was good for me to get more experience competing new skills and feeling pressure. I hit 4 for 4 and stuck my vault and dismount off bars. It was actually my first time getting a 38 with JO scoring. I also got to compete with about 25 of my teammates because it was a level 9/10/open session. I had so much fun being with all them! 

The WOGA Classic was a great meet for me! My goal was to hit all four events and I was so happy when I did! Then I was really excited when I found out that I won! It was kind of funny because I found a penny on heads in our rental car when I first got in and I said it was going to be my lucky penny. I felt very confident heading into this meet because I had been really consistent in training. I was looking forward to competing against the other countries which were China, Japan, Wales, Mexico, Russia, Netherlands, and Canada. Wales and Mexico were grouped with me along with Morgan Hurd and Aria Brusch. I started on beam, which is my favorite rotation order. I was 6th up on beam, so I did a lot of skills on the floor to keep warm. By the time it was my turn- I was the only one going! I hit a great beam routine and got a 14.150! I was so excited because it was my first 14! Next was floor and warm up went great. I saluted and got on the floor. The music started playing but it wasn't my music. That had never happened to me before! I didn't really know what to do, so I stepped off the floor and saluted again. The right music played the second time and I did a pretty good floor routine. I got a 13.600, but I think I could have done better because my piked full-in landed a little low. Vault was next and it felt really strong, I got a 14.300. Bars was my last event and my warm up was a little shaky. I was last up in the whole meet and it felt like I had to wait forever. I was the only one going and I knew that I could win if I hit an awesome routine. I did the best routine that I have ever done and got a 13.900! I was so thrilled! Nastia Liukin, Simone Biles, Madison Kocian, and Rebecca Bross were handing out awards, which was awesome! I placed in the top 3 on everything except floor and I got a really cool trophy for winning the all-around. 

After the meet we celebrated my little sister's birthday. Last year she spent it in Ohio for the Buckeye Qualifier. My parents decorated our hotel room Frozen-themed and she loved it! She said for her birthday all she wanted was to throw a quarter in the fountain at our hotel haha! Luckily we have family in Texas (only 10 minutes from our hotel) so we were able to spend a lot of time with them during the whole weekend and they were there to celebrate her birthday and make it really special! 

Elena with her cousins

Throughout the trip, I read the Maze Runner. My parents started getting annoyed because I would not stop reading! It was such a good book though! I finished it before we left and my mom said we could rent the movie when we got home. I was really excited, but then it wouldn't load. I stayed up for like 2 1/2 hours waiting for it to load! I got about 1/4 of the way through and the screen said it would be ready to play in 14 hours! I waited a little bit and it kept dropping an hour every minute. When it got to 4 hours, it went back up to 14. Ugh! I finally gave up and went to bed, but we watched it the next day! 

The only thing that I have coming up next month is developmental camp which is March 13th. I've learned a lot of new skills and I can't wait to show them off! 

~Elena