➽ Kristina VACULIK promises to be one of the most exciting recruits for the 2010-11 season when she joins the Stanford team next year.  She has been competing internationally since 2005 and was the Canadian Junior National Champ in 2006.  In her first year at the senior level, she finished first at the 2007 National Championships and seemed on her way to a spot on the 2008 Olympic team. She was selected as an alternate to the 2008 Canadian Olympic team, but withdraw due to an elbow injury.   After long recuperation period, she’s back in great form and competing a busy schedule.

VACULIK started her 2010 season with a 2nd place AA finish at Elite Canada (1st UB/FX in the event finals) .  She won the Nadia Comaneci Invitational (1st BB/FX) in February. She has competed two more international meets over the past two weekends.  At the Gymnix International Cup in Canada, she swept all events in the all around session, then went on to win bars, beam and floor in the event finals.  At the Cottbus World Cup event in Germany, she placed 3rd on vault, 2nd on bars, and 4th on beam and floor in the qualifying round, and went on to win bars and floor and to place second on vault and beam in the event finals.

VACULIK may be heading to college next fall, but she isn't wrapping up her elite career.  She is working to earn a spot at the Pacific Rim event later this season.   She also plans to defer her 2011-12 season at Stanford to focus on the 2012 Olympic Games.  She talked about her plans in interviews with International Gymnast Magazine and Gymnastike.  Here’s a short video interview following her performance at the Gymnix.

Sarah DeMEO was likely one of the hottest recruiting prospects in the country when she committed to Alabama last year.  As a five-year elite and three-time Junior National Team member, she racked up years of valuable training and meet experience before dropping back to L10 in the summer of 2008. She had an impressive 2009 season, finishing 5th AA (1st UB) at JO’s.  This season she looks even stronger.  She has finished in the top three AA in all of her 2010 meets, with wins at Chow’s, Eagles Invite, St. Louis Classic and Northern Lights.  Judging from the array of event wins throughout this competitive season, she has no weak event and she is poised to step right in next year to fill one of the spots left by Alabama’s solid group of graduating seniors.  See DeMeo's interview with Gymnastike and take a look at her interesting bars transition.

Aliza VACCHER holds the title of State Champion in two different states.  She won the state title in Oregon in 2008 and she won her second state title after moving to Arizona in 2009.  This Desert Devils L10 may be under the radar of many gymnastics fans but she has popped up at the top of the results sheets this season.  She won the Lady Luck Invite, the Fiesta Bowl (1st V/BB), the Classic Rock meet (1st UB/FX), the Malibu Coast (1st V/UB/BB) and placed 2nd AA (1st V/BB) at the Long Beach Open.  VACCHER heads to Washington next fall.  Since UW has no seniors on its roster this year, she will step in to strengthen a program that returns every routine next year.

➽ The review of recruiting classes wraps up with look at eleven more teams: BYU, CMU, DU, Iowa, Kent St., Minnesota, UNC, Ohio St., Oklahoma, Pitt, and WMU.  Thirty two programs have been included in the review over the past several weeks.  The focus of future articles will shift to state and regional meets, and then to the Junior Olympic competition.

Team	2010-11 Signees	2011-12 Commits
BYU	Megan Bain Crystal Cup: 5th AA Classic Rock: 3rd AA Long Beach Open: competed 3 events Leslie Bell Daytona Beach: competed 3 events Chicago Style: competed 1 event Pikes Peak: 8th AA City of Lights: 5th AA KayCee Gassaway Holiday Express: 8th AA Seattle Open: 21st AA Battle in Seattle: 6th AA; 1st V Malibu Coast Challenge: 2nd AA Raquel Willman Crystal Cup: 1st AA; 1st UB Winter Sun Inv: 1st AA Fiesta Bowl: 5th AA New Orleans Jazz: 2nd AA; 1st V/UB
CMU	Emily Heinz St. Nick Inv: 7th AA; 1st V Bravo Classic: competed 2 events Daytona Beach: 4th AA Chicago Style: 12th AA Midwest Open: 3rd; 1st V Brittany Petzold COTC: 2nd AA CGA Spectaular: 5th AA Sand Dollar: 3rd AA For Love or Money: 3rd AA; 1st FX Buckeye: 2nd AA; 1st UB Motown Madness: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/BB/FX
Denver	Kaitlin Moorhead All Olympia: competed one event Malibu Coast: 8th AA Alexa Riech Hot Shots Inv: 2nd AA; 1st V/FX Baloon Classic: 3rd AA; 1st V Pinky Stone: competed 3 events Maryland Classic: 16th AA Team Challenge: 1st AA; 1st V/FX Manhattan Classic: 4th AA; 1st V	Ellese Sakai-Hart All Olympia: 4th AA Spirit of the Flame: 1st AA; 1st V Malibu Coast Challenge: 1st AA; 1st BB/FX
Iowa	Nicole Pineau Winter on the Beach: competed two events; 1st UB Tesla Cox Carolina Classic: 1st AA; 1st UB/BB Tiger Paw: 3rd AA; 1st V Mardi Gras Inv: 2nd AA; 1st V/UB Charleston Cup: 4th AA; 1st UB	Sydney Hoerr Crossroads Classic: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/BB St. Jude: 6th AA Gateway Challenge: 11th AA Chicago Style: 3rd AA; 1st UB Circle of Stars: 9th AA St. Louis Classic: 2nd AA Sarah Wolford TBT Inv: 7th AA Daytona Beach: competed 3 events Purple & Gold: 5th AA
Kent State	Marie Case Commonwealth Cup: 1st AA; 1st V/FX COTC: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/BB/FX Cereal City: 2nd AA; 1st FX Pink Inv: 1st AA;, 1st UB/BB/FX Liukin Cup: 5th AA Nikki Moore Universal Galaxy: 2nd AA CGA: 11th AA Love or Money: 3rd AA Buckeye: 7th AA; 1st FX Arnold Challenge: 2nd AA
Minnesota	Megan Alvarez King Arthur Inv: competed one event Chicago Style: competed one  event Pike’s Peak: competed one event Arena Classic: competed one event Alexandra Feeken Tampa Bay Classic: 3rd AA Sand Dollar: 9th AA Daytona Beach: 4th AA Chicago Style: 19th Tim Rand: 8th AA Dusti Russell Winter Luau: 1st AA; 1st BB Sand Dollar: 10th AA Blizzard Invite: 1st AA; 1st UB/FX Harley Davidson: 2nd AA; 1st UB Oshkosh: 2nd AA; 1st UB Kayla Slechta Chicago Style: competed 1 event Twin Cities Cl: competed 2 events Northern Lights: competed 2 events
UNC	Kristin Aloi Atlanta Crown: 5th AA Sand Dollar: 2nd AA Tiger Paw: 1st AA; 1st UB/FX Excalibur: 13th AA Spring Break Out: 2nd AA; 1st UB/FX Emily Cornwell CGA: 7th AA San Deigo Classic: 7th AA For Love or Money: 4th AA; 1st FX Big Dream Classic: 1st AA; 1st UB/BB/FX Derby Classic: 2nd AA; 1st BB Acacia Cosentino Universal Galaxy: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/FX CGA: 2nd AA; 1st UB/FX Metroplex: competed 1 event Buckeye: 1st AA; 1st BB/FX Queen City: 8th AA
Ohio St	Victoria Aepli Battle of Champions: 9th AA Rock and Roll: 3rd AA; 1st UB Integrity: 3rd AA Buckeye Classic: 6th AA Arnold SportFest: 1st AA; 1st UB/BB Alex DeLuca TBT Inv: 1st AA; 1st UB/BB Sand Dollar: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/BB/FX Daytona Beach: 3rd AA Chicago Style: 13th AA Charleston Cup: 2nd AA; 1st FX Sarah Miller (has not signed) Metroplex: 5th AA Nations Capital Cup: 6th AA; 1st V Melanie Shaffer Jingle Bell Rock: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/BB/FX Stars and Stripes: 1st AA; 1st V/BB Buckeye Classic: 5th AA Pink Inv: 5th AA Arnold Sports Fest: 4th AA	Alexis Schmidt UGA Classic: 5th AA Rock the House: 6th AA Sand Dollar: 4th AA St. Valentines: 1st AA; 1st V/UB/FX GymQuarter: 4th AA; 1st UB Arena: 7th AA
OU	Hope Bruce Buckeye Classic: competed 2 events Hayden Ward Metroplex: 6th AA Taylor Spears Texas Prime: 4th AA; 1st FX WOGA: 5th AA Pikes Peak: 3rd AA; 1st UB HNI: 1st AA	Erica Brewer Meet Me In St. Louis: competed two events; 1st BB Fiesta Bowl: 4th AA; 1st UB Rebecca Clark Kansas City Coed: competed 3 events Dragon Inv: 1st AA; 1st UB/BB
Pitt	Nicole Galluzzo Brestyans: 3rd AA Team Challenge: 3rd AA Little Bigger: 4th AA (all ages combined) Chicago Style: 9th AA Manhattan Classic: 3rd AA Maya Ketner San Diego Classic: 3rd AA, 1st UB Love or Money: 2nd AA, 1st UB Katie O'Rourke Maryland Classic: 2nd AA Metroplex: 2nd AA Excalibur: 5th AA	Bri Hogan Rock the House: 2nd AA; 1st UB Battle of Champions: 3rd AA; 1st UB San Diego Classic: 2nd AA; 1st BB For Love or Money: 5th AA Byers Inv: 4th AA; 1st UB/BB
WMU	Christine Bailye St. Nick Inv: 4th AA St. Jude: 1st AA Gateway Challenge: 7th AA Chicago Style: 4th AA Circle of Stars: 1st AA; 1st V/FX Midwest Open: 1st AA; 1st UB/FX Harley Davidson: 2nd AA Lauren Bledsoe COTC: 1st AA; 1st UB/BB CGA: 6th AA Sand Dollar: 2nd AA; 1st UB Buckeye: 4th AA Motown Madness: 2nd AA Kelsey Turnquist Reg 5 Cup: 7th AA CGA: 8th AA Sand Dollar: 3rd AA Chicago Style: 2nd AA Circle of Stars: 2nd AA Arena Classic: 7th AA

 

➽ KUDOS! Most meet results from the past two or three weeks have not been posted, but here are a few recent meet winners who aren’t already mentioned above: