32

It's the magic number these days! Meagan needs 2 32.0 All-Around scores at 2 different meets this season to qualify for state. Her first 32 came at Circle of Stars. But it didn't come easily, and her score came in at 32.0 exactly!

Since then, she's fallen short - not by much, but by enough that it's not a 32. Yesterday was her LAST chance to get that last score to qualify for state before the qualification deadline.

Beam came first. She did great!! It was the cleanest, steadiest routine I've ever seen her do in a meet! So proud of her! And she scored an 8.025!

Floor was next. Again, the BEST routine she's done in competition all year! Unfortunately, the judge was judging hard. All of the scores were pretty low, unless the routines were near perfect. Her best floor routine earned her her lowest floor score she's gotten. A 7.25. Sometimes it just works out that way. Judging is subjective, so from meet to the next, scores can vary greatly. Anyway, a low 7 was a big blow to needing to average 8's on all 4 events. But not a deal-breaker. Yet.

Vault. Oh my gosh!!! I didn't know my girl could vault like that! She looked great!! Score... 8.9!!!  Almost a 9 for her!! Sweet! That' more than erased the deficit she carried over from floor. It's okay.

And bars is one of her strongest events. At this point, she needed a 7. 825 to get her 32. Totally doable. And then... At the beginning of the routine, there's a combination series, where the girls are supposed to combine a few elements without a pause. If you DON'T combine them and you stop between, it's a small deduction. But not major. Well, she WENT FOR IT!! She had a pretty decent first element, and she went for that combination. And missed. She fell on the 2nd element. Stink. The score posted as a 7.45 or something like that. She missed the 32 by a few tenths. But at least she didn't hold anything back!!

But wait!! The meet was all over. The last gymnast was just finishing up on floor, and all the other events were DONE. The only people left in the stands instead of the award room were those of us from our team who staid to watch the girls finish on floor. All of a sudden, Meagan's  name starts flashing up on the score board again. Bars: 7.850.  What?! They changed her score!

Come to find out, when her coach got the score cards back (or something like that, I'm not exactly sure how that all works), there was a pretty big discrepancy between the 2 judges' scores - a 7.2 and a 7.9 or something like that. So he, being the incredible person that he is, inquired. And there had been a math error in calculating the deductions taken by the 1st judge. The result... her score was bumped up to a 7.85! And her ending all-around score was a 32.025!!!

Now, in a gymnastics world where most of the girls are getting 36's, 37's, and even 38's as all-around scores, this may not seem so spectacular. But to me, and to Lucas, and to those around us who know and love and have been rooting for Meagan all year, really it meant the world. Sappy as it is, it choked me up a bit. Not because I care if she goes to state or not. But because I've watched her struggle. And try. And struggle. And try harder. And struggle. I've watched her watch her teammates load up on the medals while she walks away empty handed. And I've watched her continue to support them and congratulate them and cheer for them. And I'm just happy for her. That's all. I'm happy that she's been rewarded with the chance to compete with her team at state. No matter what the score is.