Believe it or not, it’s been five months since world championships, which sounds insane because I’m STILL crying about Brooklyn Moors‘ performances on a regular basis.

But now I have a new reason to shed happy tears, and it’s because Moors is BACK and better than ever, bringing in big upgrades to every event to win the all-around in a tight battle against first-year senior Ana Padurariu. Both had to count a fall — Moors on her Markelov, Padurariu on her Yurchenko full — but otherwise looked stellar, competing high difficulty very well at a time in the season when most elites are still asleep (and by asleep, I mean training 40 hours a week but not yet competing).

Moors started her all-around competition on beam with her brand new front aerial to front tuck series, which is insanely difficult (and the connection should be worth 0.3 in my humble opinion) and looked awesome, and the rest of her set was solid and confident with a great Rudi dismount to finish with a 13.767, her best beam score as a senior.

On floor, she now has a front layout to front double tuck opening pass on top of a Podkopayeva in her second line, both of which looked great, as did her 2½ to front layout, she hit her handspring front layout full on vault, and though she missed the Markelov, she hit her brand-new Bhardwaj out of a Maloney, a big upgrade that should help out her score there and make her more of an all-around threat internationally.

Moors ended up with a 54.335 in the all-around, and she qualified into every final but bars, though she opted to skip vault on Sunday to save her body. Beam was a shaky final for everyone, and Moors looked like she missed her foot at the end of her front aerial to front tuck series, sitting it on the beam (though covering it up with a little flourish of her hand going into some low beam choreo as if it was meant to happen), but she was still able to pick up the silver medal with a 12.2 and moved on to floor where she got the best score of her career, a 14.6, after competing her first two passes super well, and then adding in a layout full out of her 2½, another huge upgrade that now brings her difficulty to a 5.6, one of the highest in the world.

Basically, if we thought Moors was great last year, she was, but we haven’t seen anything yet. She proved here that she had so much up her sleeve, doing an incredible job introducing multiple new elements and connections while also keeping her routines gorgeous and stylistic, especially, as always, on floor.

Padurariu got out to a great start in her senior debut, hitting her inbar half to piked Jaeger, huge inbar piked Tkachev, inbar to bail to stalder to Ray, and full-in with a small hop for a 14.267 and then fighting through some nervous wobbles to stay on beam, hitting her side aerial into two layout stepouts to applause from the crowd before sticking her double pike to get a 14.234.

She was also clean on floor, with a big piked full-in, 2½ to punch front tuck to stag, and double pike getting a 13.734, and yet at the end of what was a fantastic day she just seemed to lose steam on vault, coming in SO low off the table, she really had no prayers of getting her full around, crashing it to her face. It looked like with the way she fell, she might not get a score, but it turned out her feet hit first and she got an 11.850 to finish a few tenths behind Moors with a 54.085, winning the silver even with the mistake.

Unfortunately, though, her fall seemed to injure her foot and she had to leave the arena on crutches that night. She got an x-ray, but while there was nothing definitive, she and her coaches decided that it was best for her to miss event finals, and she went home instead. For a senior debut, it wasn’t ideal, but if you ignore the vault and everything after, she looked fantastic and when she comes back a bit healthier and stronger, she will definitely help elevate Canada’s status internationally with what she’s capable of.

Behind the top two was the less flashy but promisingly consistent Rose-Kaying Woo, who hit every routine this weekend without a fall or major mistake to win the all-around bronze and beam gold. Woo opened on beam, bobbling a couple of times but hitting her flight series and front aerial to switch half well for a 13.1, and she followed it up with a wild landing on her double arabian but a lovely stuck triple to get a 13.167 on floor. On vault, she downgraded to the FTY, which was smart, getting a 13.85, and she finished with a clean bars set to earn a 13.667, coming up just a few tenths behind Padurariu for the bronze with a 53.784.

In event finals, Woo had a nice toe full to Tkachev to Pak on bars before her Maloney to clear hip and toe half to front giant to double front, stumbling back the landing and missing a medal by less than a tenth as she placed fourth with a 13.134. On beam, she wobbled on a few skills and took some steps back on her double pike, but with an overall weak final, she was able to pull off the gold by a solid margin with a 12.734, and on floor she again missed a medal by under a tenth, though her double arabian looked much better than it did in finals and she also nailed the triple full and double full to finish with a 13.5 for fourth place.

Overall Woo looked better than she did last season, I think. Her difficulty is a bit low compared to some of her teammates, so it won’t exactly be easy for her to make teams without getting her Yurchenko double back and upgrading a bit on her stronger events, though I can see her at least going to the Commonwealth Games and/or Pac Rims to test her internationally in the lead up to worlds. If everyone’s healthy, without upgrades I think she’d be a solid first alternate for the team I’d send to Doha thanks to her consistency and ability to fill in on every event if needed, but I’d like to see her up her difficulty and become a legit contender for that team.

Rounding out the top eight were Haley de Jong in fourth with a 53.085, Victoria Kayen-Woo in fifth with a 52.617, Shallon Olsen in sixth with a 51.634, Megan Roberts in seventh with a 51.417, and Laurie-Lou Vézina in eighth with a 51.251. Jade Chrobok was looking to fit into that top group, but unfortunately, like Padurariu, crashed her FTY and was given a zero on vault, and 2017 world all-around silver medalist Ellie Black competed only on bars here.

I was really impressed with the level of difficulty de Jong brought to her all-around competition, and she kicked butt with great routines on beam and floor. She had quite a few falls in event finals, missing her DTY, falling three times on beam, and landing her double arabian to her knees on floor, but she still managed to pick up the bronze on vault while winning silver on bars, hitting her stalder half to Jaeger, Pak, toe on to Maloney to toe full to toe shoot, and a stuck double layout for a 13.2.

Like her sister, the elder Woo had a fantastic all-around performance, hitting all four events with some wobbles and weak spots on beam, but her floor had a great double layout and she also stuck her double layout bars dismount. Woo was a surprise for the bars gold, coming in a tenth ahead from the two silver medalists after looking lovely with her shaposh to clear hip full, clear hip half to piked Jaeger, and double layout with a step for a 13.3, and she hit a solid floor set to place fifth with a 13.067, though like pretty much everyone else on beam, she had a rough performance there, falling twice and tying for sixth.

Olsen obviously continues to stand out on vault and floor, and though she was downgraded here, she still managed to win the vault title by about a point with her DTY and Lopez. Olsen also ended up winning the silver on floor with one of her strongest sets, nailing the double double, front tuck through to stuck double tuck, piked full-in, and triple full for a 13.667, and she tied for sixth on beam, hitting all of her skills on the apparatus but then stumbling back and sitting her double pike.

It was great seeing Roberts back after she missed nearly all of 2017 due to injury, and though she was a bit downgraded here and there, she mostly looked good, her only mistake in the all-around coming on beam, where she landed her double pike on her knees. Her floor continues to be strong, with a Dos Santos, piked full-in, double tuck, and double pike, though some iffy landings in the final pushed her down to seventh place with a 12.7.

Vézina was lovely here, showing some unique dismounts on bars (she has a clear hip directly into a back tuck) and on beam (where she performs a side aerial to back handspring to layout 1½) with some otherwise lovely work everywhere, including with her nice Ray on bars, nice dance skills on beam, clean tumbling on floor, and a solid tsuk pike on vault. With one of the cleanest bars sets in the final, she was able to pull off the silver medal with a 13.2, and though she missed her foot on her back handspring into her beam dismount in that final, balking the 1½ and performing just a back tuck, the rest of her routine was lovely enough to get her to a 12.167, winning the bronze.

I was so bummed about Chrobok’s finish here. She had a mostly strong day, hitting an excellent Maloney to Tkachev and stalder to super straight bail on bars but then sitting the double front dismount, putting up one of the best beam sets of the competition with an effortless double spin and low but strong double pike, and sticking her whip whip through to double tuck in her otherwise good floor set, but that FTY was so rough, it was an obvious zero and she looked so dejected to finish on that note. Her only final was beam, where she finished fourth with a 12.1 after falling on her side aerial to layout stepout, and so I’m sure she walked away from this competition disappointed, but for her first meet of the year it was actually not all that bad, and with a hit vault and bars, she’s right up there in the top group.

Black looked fantastic on her first day back since worlds, hitting her Maloney to Hindorff, Shang, piked Jaeger, Pak, van Leeuwen, giant full, and toe front half dismount for a 13.934, second only to Padurariu. Unfortunately in the final she missed her Hindorff and her van Leeuwen, though this was a practice meet at best for her, so I’m sure it’s not a huge deal for her and she’ll be able to move on into the next thing with ease.

Laurie Denommee, who was ninth all-around after a solid day with just a slight break on bars following her van Leeuwen, was excellent here, adding to Canada’s depth with clean and powerful vaults and a solid floor set, medaling on both in the final. On vault, her FTY was super solid with a hop in place and she also nailed her handspring pike half, and she killed it on floor with the best set I’ve seen her do, hitting her full-twisting double layout, excellent double layout in the second pass, and a front tuck through to stuck double pike for a 13.567.

I was also really excited to see an epic debut from Hannah Scharf in her first elite competition ever. She hit all of her events in the all-around competition to finish tenth with a 50.835, with her huge and clean FTY on vault getting a 13.8, her bars including a toe full, shaposh, piked Jaeger, and double tuck, clean and solid work on beam, and big tumbling on floor, including a piked full-in, 1½ to front full, and double pike. I love seeing kids come out of nowhere to crush it in competition, and while she wasn’t necessarily a game changer (yet, anyway!), she was fantastic and I hope NCAA teams are taking notice!

Finally, Sophie Marois had a bit of a rough competition, finishing 17th all-around with a 48.602 after crashing her piked full-in on floor, landing her DTY a bit short, and falling on her Bhardwaj on bars. She came in on Sunday for the vault final, tying for bronze after crashing her DTY but then almost sticking her tsuk full. She’s super promising, and has lots of big skills and tricky combinations, but she definitely needs a bit more polish before those big skills will become useful to a program that has a shocking amount of depth at the moment. Hopefully we’ll see her make some improvements at Gymnix because she’s a great talent!

Other highlight routines at this competition for me included Jessica Dowling on bars, Megan DiPietro with a big smile after her confident beam set, Chloe Lorange with her always brilliant and moving floor routine, and Montana Fairbairn with some excellent tumbling on floor.

Full results from the competition are available here, and we’ll be back with a junior recap tomorrow!

Article by Lauren Hopkins