It was a successful weekend for eight Delta Gymnastics athletes who were chosen to represent B.C. at the Western Canadian Artistic Championships last month in Langley.
At Westerns, levels 8-10 women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) and levels 2-5 men’s artistic gymnastics (MAG) athletes from B.C. to Manitoba compete for their provinces.
On the men’s side, Keanan Morcilla competed for Team BC B, who finished second place All-Around in level 3. Morcilla finished first on the high bar in the All-Around, qualifying for the finals, where he nabbed second place.
“This was Keanan’s first year competing in Provincial level 3 and we are so proud of his performance at Western Canadian Championships,” said MAG coordinator Richard Woo.
“Keanan also made high bar finals at BC Winter Games earlier this year and the experience helped him prepare for this competition. This puts an exclamation point on a great year for Keanan.”
For the women’s side, Delta Gymnastics had representation at all three levels – Lila Bulka (level 10 senior), Gabriela Hoolsema (level 10 senior wildcard), Sydney Thomas, Carolina Hoolsema, (level 10 junior), Mackenzie Hayes, Annabelle Ma (level 9 junior), and Kaiya Tien (level 8 senior), which made WAG coordinator Jennifer Dober proud.
“They were all great contributors to the team and performed well in the All-Around too. Having five out of five eligible athletes qualify to event finals is a great accomplishment,” she said.
Bulka finished first on vault in the All-Around, and her team earned the team gold.
She also qualified for the vault finals, where she placed fourth.
Gabriela Hoolsema earned a wildcard spot to Westerns as a level 10 senior and qualified for the floor event finals, where she finished in fourth place.
For the level 10 juniors, Thomas finished third All-Around. Her results qualified her for the finals in floor, beam, and vault, where she earned first, second, and third respectively.
Thomas’ teammate, Carolina Hoolsema finished seventeenth All-Around. She was unable to complete all the events due to injury, but her and Thomas’ scores helped the L10 junior team finish second.
Level 9 junior Hayes finished fourth All-Around and earned second place in finals for both floor and vault. Ma placed eighth All-Around, including a first-place finish on floor, and landed fourth in the vault final. Their team also finished first place in the team competition.
Level 8 senior Tien finished 20th All-Around individually and as a team, the level 8 seniors won bronze.
