1998 Nationals Report
This is Nancy, one of Jeanette's webmasters. I was in Indianapolis for the finals in Nationals, and I'm writing this report so everyone can know how Jeanette did there. Enjoy!
Going into one of the biggest meets of the year, Jeanette really wanted to hit everything. Her goal was a top 6 finish, and her coach, Don Peters, had been preparing her for this challenge by having her do pressure sets in the gym. However, Jeanette was also suffering from a foot injury, and she had to downgrade a bit on tumbling and vault.
The first day went well. Jeanette had slight breaks on some events, but she stayed on, as she has done in every National Championship she has been in. Probably the worst problem of the day was her troubles on her full twisting back handspring on beam, but she managed to stay on on that! Jeanette did really well on bars, one of her best events, and pulled off a bronze medal on that! She was also in 7th place all-around after the prelims.
I saw the last rotation of warmups during the finals, and Jeanette was on floor. She warmed up things such as a whip-layout, and moved on to her nice whip-double pike. It was apparent that her foot was holding her back a bit, however. After march-in, the gymnasts went to their first events. Jeanette was the only gymnast to be wearing a sleeveless leotard during the meet, and some people were wondering if that was a deduction. But, it is allowed and she looked great in the shiny blackish-silver tank. You could really see how strong she is from her arm muscles.
Jeanette began the meet on floor, and although she went out of bounds on her first pass, she had nice dance and was strong in her watered-down tumbling. She finished with a nice whip-double pike to score a 9.35.
Next Jeanette was on vault, the other event where she had to downgrade. She did an interesting vault of a roundoff-full on-back tuck. I don't remember her second vault, but she came up with good landings on both, and averaged a 9.125.
On bars, Jeanette was impressive as always. She did a nice Healy to inverts, and her dismount was also out of inverts as well. She landed well, and scored a 9.675, the same score that she recieved in prelims!
Ending on beam in the Nationals might be tough for some people, but not for Jeanette! She pulled off a nice routine, including a roundoff-layout mount, and nice full twisting backhandspring, and a high and well landed double pike dismount to score a 9.425.
Jeanette impressed more and more people as the evening went on, showing everyone what she is really about. Before her beam routine, I heard someone sitting behind me say "Oh, I'm going to watch this girl on beam. She's GOOD!". I was really happy for Jeanette to gain so much support, and there were also lots of people cheering her on before each event (including me!). Jeanette's gotta be happy with the respect she gained at this meet!
More importantly, Jeanette met her goal - she finished 6th all-around, even with the foot injury! She recieved a medal with the rest of the top 6, and was also presented a plaque along with everyone else who made the National team. These National Championships on 1998 were Jeanette's best ever, and we can only wonder what next year will bring!
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