After giving fans a glimpse at how the U.S. seniors are looking in Italy, have no fear – we’re going to take you through the junior routines as well.

It’s an impressive junior squad this year, featuring five young ladies who could all be contenders for the 2016 Olympic team, and then Victoria Nguyen at 14 already looks like she could lead the way in Tokyo.

Here are their routines and our impressions of them. Enjoy!

Norah Flatley

In the past few years, Norah has been under the shadows of girls like Bailie Key and Nia Dennis, but now that she’s older and has some great upgrades, she could easily lead the junior all-around in Jesolo this weekend.

Vault– DTY

This is a big deal. After years of competing FTYs, Flatley has upgraded and it’s a good one! She doesn’t get the greatest height, but she has a very clean and quickly-twisted DTY here, which she stuck during training.

Bars– inbar half (D) + front giant in L grip (C) + Endo in L grip (D) + front giant full in L grip (D) + Jaeger (D), inbar (D) + bail (D) + toe shoot (C), double layout (D)

This is an impressive and pretty set, with lots of L grip work and valuable connections. She looks polished here and her double layout is as straight and lovely as ever!

Beam– bhs (B) + bhs (B) + layout (E), switch ring (E), front aerial (D) + sheep (D), switch (C) + back pike (C), side aerial (D), full L turn (C) + full turn (A), wolf (A) + punch front tuck (D) + sissone (A) + split jump (A), 2.5 dismount (D)

In one of the first days of training she had a few wobbles here and there, but no major mistakes. On day 3, she nailed her flight series (it’s gorgeous!) and was otherwise calm and collected even on this difficult set of hers. Her connections look fantastic, and I especially love her wolf to front tuck to sissone to split jump series. Very nice, and she makes her 2.5 dismount look easy. I think this should be out of about a 6.5 start value, and yet she makes it look a full point easier.

Floor– Whip (A) + triple full (E), double pike (D), double tuck (D), front double full (D)

She’s using Shawn Johnson’s August Rush floor music from 2008, which is excellent. Her tumbling isn’t the most difficult, but she gets enough in there to still have a respectable start value, and she looks so clean on all of it, it’s worth it.

Jazmyn Foberg

Last year’s junior national champ was a big story after defeating both Flatley and Dennis despite not even qualifying to nationals the year before. Now she’s making her big international debut and she really looks ready to make an impact.

Vault– DTY

She actually trained an FTY in addition to the DTY, which looked a little messy when she first gave it a shot earlier this week. Her FTY was excellent in comparison. Today, she went for the DTY again and it looked much better, just showing a tiny bit of form issue as she comes in for the landing, but it should score well, and she got some good distance on it.

Bars– van Leeuwen (E), giant half (B) + front giant (B) + Jaeger (D), toe on (C) + pak salto (D), Maloney (D) to Gienger (D), giant full (C), full-in (D)

I love the Maloney to Gienger connection, which picks up an extra 0.2 in bonuses and is a smart (and unique!) choice. Her van Leeuwen had leg separation earlier in the week but looks like it’s been cleaned up nicely as the days have gone on, and everything else looks great, aside from the occasional short handstand. She’s such a rock, and this event is no exception.

Beam– double wolf turn (D), bhs (B) + loso (C), punch front tuck (D), side aerial (D), switch (C) + back tuck (C), sheep (D), front aerial (D), sissone (A) + straddle (A)

It’s a solid routine, though doesn’t really have a huge amount of difficulty. There are very few connections, none worth much in terms of bonus, but the individual elements are all there and look exceptionally clean. I didn’t see a dismount from her all week…even on day 3 she opted for a timer, though her timer looked like she was going for a double tuck. Assuming so, I have her difficulty at about 5.6, so it’s not a super competitive routine but it’ll do for now, especially looking as polished as it does.

Floor– Full-twisting double layout (H), 1.5 (C) + double tuck (D), full-in (E), double pike (D)

I love that she’s going for a full-twisting double layout, though it looks like a tough skill for her right now, so I’m interested to see if she can improve this by Saturday…I believe she has a double layout as backup. She went OOB on her 1.5 through to double tuck in the early part of the week, though looked better by Thursday, and her full-in had a sizeable hop. It’s an impressive amount of difficulty, though, and should get better as she continues training it.

Laurie Hernandez

Finally! The return of Hernandez has been long-awaited, as she suffered not one but two injuries since earning the silver medal at U.S. nationals as a junior in 2013. Nearly two years later, she still looks like the same old Laurie, which is to say she’s still the stalder queen on bars and is fabulous on floor.

Vault– FTY

Yes, just an FTY. GOOD. The DTY was hit or miss in 2013 and was the cause of her knee injury at the ranch last year, so it’s best for her to play it safe. Especially because she looks amazing with just the full, which is powerful and clean.

Bars– Downie (F), Ricna (E) + pak salto (D), Endo half (C) + stalder (B) + Ray (C), stalder full (D), full-in (D)

All hail the stalder queen. Yes, every single skill in her routine minus the pak and her dismount is a stalder element, and I love it. She’s clearly found her niche, and she does it all very well, minus the form issues that she seems to have with her stalder full (just a little leg separation, easily fixable). Her routine is quick and to the point, and yet still amasses a decent amount of difficulty.

Beam– front aerial (D) + sissone (A) + split jump (A), bhs (B) + loso (C), full turn (A), sheep (D), punch front pike (E), side aerial (D), switch (C) + switch half (D), punch front tuck (D), switch ring (E), double pike (E)

Love the difficulty here, and though she had some minor wobbles throughout in the first training days, she looked a bit more confident today, and when there were little checks, she covered them well. I think she has one of the nicest sheep jumps on the U.S. team, and though her switch to switch half connection is a little tentative, the amplitude on all of her leaps is fantastic.

Floor– double Arabian (E) + stag (A), front layout (B) + front double full (D) + front tuck (A), double pike (D)

I believe she also has a pass between the latter two, but I didn’t see a full routine from her today, so I’m going off of what she showed earlier in the week. I love the routine and the music, which is the same as Rheagan Courville’s…creepy in a good way, and Hernandez performs it beautifully as always.

Victoria Nguyen

The youngest of the group and making her international debut, Nguyen more than holds her own against this team of veterans. She’s good pretty much everywhere, but her beam is epic…it’ll definitely be a Chow’s battle for the junior beam title this weekend!

Vault– DTY

Impressive, considering her size!

Bars– inbar (D) + inbar half (D) + front giant in L grip (C) + front giant full in L grip (D) + front giant + Jaeger (D), stalder (B) + pak salto (D), toe shoot (C), double layout (D)

There are no single big skills in this routine but that front giant combination at the beginning half of the routine is absolutely lovely, especially the inbar and L-grip work. She caught her pak a little high and close in the instance I saw, but everything else looked seamless, and her double layout is as perfectly straight as her teammate Flatley’s.

Beam– bhs (B) + loso (C) + loso (C), front aerial (D) + sissone (A), side aerial (D), split jump (A) + straddle jump (A), full Y turn (C) + full turn (A), switch (C) + Onodi (D) + sheep (D), switch ring (E), punch front tuck (D), 2.5 (D)

This routine is packed, and it’s gorgeous. Her flight series is perfection, she is so fluid on every connection, and her switch ring is to die for. She moves so expertly across the beam, which gives every element a bit more sparkle than everyone else. Her switch to Onodi to sheep jump is especially fantastic…she did the sheep jump separately earlier this week, but managed to connect it with the first two skills with no problem today. Just beautiful. Praise Chow.

Floor– full-in (E), triple full (E)

I haven’t seen a full set from her just yet, but was super impressed with her ability on her first two passes, and her routine in general is just as lovely as you’d imagine based on her beam. She’s a treasure.

Ragan Smith

Vault– DTY

Her form here looks a million times better than last year. Still some form work that can be done, but no longer scary to watch. She definitely has a handle on things.

Bars– inbar (D) + stalder half (C) + Jaeger (D), stalder (B) + Ricna (E), pak salto (D), Ray (C), stalder full (D), full-in (D)

Not bad. She had some meltdowns on this event last summer, when I think she was scoring somewhere in the 11s, so her work now makes her look like a different person. It’s not perfect, but definitely a solid routine that won’t hold her back in the all-around. I would imagine that Ricna will eventually be connected to the pak when she gets more comfortable.

Beam– double wolf turn (D), bhs (B) + layout (E), standing pike full (F or G), punch front tuck (D) + sissone (A), switch ring (E), front aerial (D) + straddle jump (A) + split jump (A), sheep (D)

I didn’t see a dismount from any training day, but everything else looks great (minus the back leg on her switch ring, which is a bit wonky). Her standing pike full is excellent…a tuck full is an F and a layout full is a G, so I’m interested to see where this will fall. I’m going with G, if only because the majority of the skill is fully laid out…she only pikes down at the very end before she lands it. But yes, this should be a solid event for her…the battle between her, Flatley, and Nguyen to make the final will probably be more exciting than the final itself!

Floor– Double Arabian (E) + stag (A), 1.5 (C) + triple full (E), double tuck (D), double pike (D)

I. Love. This. Routine. It’s a West Side Story medley with some of the same cuts of music from Jen Pinches’ UCLA routine and then some additional added in, and her choreo is cute without being obnoxiously cutesy, as some routines for the peanuts tend to be. Her tumbling looks great, and though her triple looks a little short at the end, today she hit it with no problem in addition to sticking her double tuck.

Olivia Trautman

Trautman is new to the national team as of last weekend, and despite having a lot of pressure on her as she makes her international debut, she’s been looking calm all week and seems to have grown a lot in her ability compared to last summer.

Vault– DTY

The power’s great but the form (really only towards the end) isn’t fully there yet, which takes a little control away from her on the landing. But the power! I don’t know where she gets it. She’s so tiny!

Bars– Tkatchev (D), toe on (C) + bail (D), toe shoot (C), giant full (C) + giant half (B) + front giant in L grip half (C), double layout (D)

It’s an easy routine compared to others you’ll see from her teammates, and there are lots of little form issues throughout, including bent legs on her Tkatchev (it looked cleaner today than previously) and lots of leg separations on her pirouettes. But the rest of her events are strong, so she should still have a great all-around competition if she hits this. It’s also important to note that last year she had a 4.4 start value, and now I’d say she’s at about 5.1, which is impressive for less than a year.

Beam– wolf turn full (B), standing Arabian (F), punch front tuck (D) + wolf jump (A) + split jump (A), bhs (B) + loso (C), switch side (C), side somi (D), switch (C) + back tuck (C), double pike (E)

An excellent set! She bends her leg on some of the skills, like as she first begins her wolf turn, but she also shows a nice amount of power in her standing Arabian and in her double pike dismount, and there’s some great difficulty here…she should come in at about 5.8, about a half tenth improvement from last year.

Floor– Full-twisting double layout (H), double layout (F), 1.5 (C) + double tuck (D)

This kid has so much power. Her full-twisting double layout could use a bit of work on the landing, but she gets both it and the double layout around nicely, and then came in with a nice stick on the 1.5 through to double back. She could definitely be a threat for the floor podium if she hits on Saturday.

Article by Lauren Hopkins