Submitted photo The Warren YMCA Powerhouse Gymnastics Team recently competed at nationals against other teams from across the country.

WARREN — Recently, the Warren YMCA Powerhouse Gymnastics Team vaulted their way into the YMCA National Gymnastics Championship.

Nationals took place in Cincinnati, Ohio from June 21 to 25. Competing against girls from across the country, the Warren team were able to take home multiple medals in many different levels and events.

The team is made up of 21 girls and each girl competed in levels based on their age. The ages of the girls on the team range from about six to 13 years old. Levels of competing include; Level Two, Level Three, Level Xcel Silver, Level Four, Level Xcel Gold, Level 5 and Level 7.

Competitors participated in floor, vault, bars and beam competitions. All around placements for the team included scores from each competition, and many members of the team ranked highly in the country.

In the all around placements in the country for Level Two; Ruth Sienkiewicz placed second, Ryan Betts placed 14th, Kinley Davidson eighth, Alaina Gaithers 13th, Juliette Banuelos ninth, Savea Lauffenburger 14th, and Madelyn Smart third.

All around placements for Level Three included; Elliette Fralick ninth, Audrey Wurst eighth, Riley Hultman ninth, and Ava McNett 11th. Xcel Silver all around placements included; Caroline Curren eighth, Delaney Moore 10th, and Maddison Kent 10th.

For Level Four; Harper Christie placed 16th, Kelsey Johnson placed 16th, Luci Salvatore 17th and Meredith Smyth second.

Alliesun Woodin placed 15th all around in Xcel Gold, Ainsley Schuler placed 16th in Level Five and Gracie Page placed 18th in Level Seven.

Altogether the team received one first place medal, two second place medals, seven third place medals, three fourth place medals, three fifth place medals, two sixth place medals and one seventh place medals along with two second place all around medals and one third all around medal.

For many of the girls, the competition was new and challenging.

“It was my first year in gymnastics and I didn’t know what to expect,” Madelyn Smart said. “We all put a lot of hard work in over the year and brought a lot of medals home to Warren. It was fun and challenging.”

Meredith Smyth, who is also an Eisenhower cheerleader, basketball player, softball player for the Warren league and has been in Junior musicals all while going to gymnastics as well and maintaining her grades to be inducted into the Junior Honor Society, said she set out to Nationals this year with the goal to beat her score last year.

“I was going in there with hopes to beat last year’s 23rd place, knowing that if I keep my head up and just have fun that it’s going to be worthwhile, and it was,” Smyth said. “I had fun with my friends and it’s amazing to see all of our hard work over the year pay off.”

Alliesun Woodin plays softball for the Warren league, just made it as a seventh grader into the eighth grade Beaty Middle school cheerleading team and competition squad, and maintains honor and merit roll status at Beaty Middle School. Just before the competition, she was injured.

“I’ve never been hurt badly but falling on the uneven bars did make me know that the places I was going to earn were going to be harder being injured,” Woodin said. “I didn’t give up, I’m proud of where I placed being set back, it only gives me that motivation to work harder in the gym this season.”

Woodin’s mother, Stacey Woodin, said as a parent she and the rest of the parents are proud of the team’s accomplishments.

“As a parent in the Warren Powerhouse YMCA gymnastics, parents aren’t just a team, we are family,” Stacey Woodin said. “We all feel so blessed and happy to be a part of something so amazing.”

Stacey Woodin thanked the team’s head coach Kristy Turner, Assistant coach Emily Onuffer, and Megan Difranco — a current Warren Area High School Senior and a last year gymnast this coming season, who joined the team as a coach for nationals to be there to support and encourage her teammates. She also thanked the businesses that donate to the team to allow them to reach Nationals.