XCEL at Battle in Bellevue 2025

Team Xcel kicked off competition season at The Battle in Bellevue January 17-19!

BUREN: This year is extra special for us because SGA Burien is joining in for the first time!

Coach Nikita said: “What an exciting way to start Burien’s FIRST EVER XCEL competition season! Battle in Bellevue is such a fun meet with the motorcycles, leather jackets, and the light show for march-in. But I think the best part was finally getting a chance to show off all the hard work we have been doing in the gym. This season is also extra special because we are competing with SGA Columbia City. We get bonus teammates and coaches, how cool!

I am super proud of the Burien gymnasts. They were all feeling nervous stepping into our first meet, but they handled those nerves like champions! Once it was time to compete they remembered that “I got this!” and they sure did! This resulted in sticking big skills like, Kyra’s cartwheel on beam. Big scores, a 9.8 for Sloane on bars. And even a couple first place finishes, Brianna 1st on bars and Renata 1st on beam! With the help of our teammates and coaches at Columbia City, both Bronze and Silver teams finished in 3rd place. Way to go ladies! I can wait to see what the rest of the season has in store.”

Check out more Burien highlights on Instagram and Facebook

COLUMBIA CITY:

Coach Jayme said: “It was great to be back out competing again, the girls have been working so hard in the gym lately and they were so much fun to watch. We have some work to do over the next couple in order to get prepared for Candyland!”

Check out more Columbia City highlights on Instagram and Facebook

LAKE CITY:

Coach Misa said: “Another fantastic Battle in Bellevue in the books!
Highlights include, Battle Champ, Kate from our Platinum team placing first all-around with a 37.075, multiple skills that were competed in a meet for the first time, A 2nd place finish for our Silver team, and 15 gymnasts competed at their first ever Xcel meet! With our first meet complete, we have a clear picture of what we still need to work on, and cannot wait for Candyland Invitational!”

Coach Annika said: “These girls did great in their first meet of the season! Lots of nerves and jitters, especially for our first year Bronzes, but they stayed focus and performed their best. We’re all excited to work even harder for Candyland, and bring home more achievements!”

Coach Israel said: “The Xcel Gold girls did an amazing job! They’ve been training since summer for this first competition, and as a coach, I can see significant improvement in their artistic performance and confidence in presenting their routines. I’m so proud of the support they show each other as a team and how hard they fought through their beam routines!”

Check out more Lake City highlights on Instagram and Facebook

BALLARD: 

Coach Lauryn: “At their first meet of the season, our gymnasts showed great determination and teamwork. We had many gymnasts qualify for State on their first go, and we can’t wait to see how many more qualify throughout the season. We’re incredibly proud of the effort and growth our athletes displayed last weekend. A special shoutout to Kellen, Claire, Kenzie, Charlotte, and Milena for competing in their first XCEL meet! It’s been so rewarding watching their confidence grow during our preparatory period. This meet is just the beginning, and we’re excited to see how they build on this moving forward. We’ll be spending the next month working on fine tuning the details and technique in their routines while building their confidence even more.”

Coach Julian: “Gymnastics is a mental game as much as it is physical, so my goal going into Battle in Bellevue was to build confidence in the athletes as some competed new skills or competed in a new level. With that being said, our performance at Battle was everything I wanted and more. Many athletes competed skills that they had been previously hesitant to compete and all athletes found joy in competing. The cherry on top was that we had some podium finishes!

Moving forward, we are looking to minimize deductions to get even more podium finishes. We are going to fine tune our skills by making our skills bigger, limbs straighter, and landings stickier. Our trajectory as a team is very promising. I am excited to see just how much progress we can make together.”

Coach Nayeli: “In this first meet, I feel that the girls did really well mentally and in facing their nerves, as well as recognizing which skills they can improve. As a coach, I’m really happy to see how the girls are gaining more confidence in themselves and in me.”

Coach Melia: “I am so proud of the girls and all of the hard work they have put into their season so far! I am especially impressed with Coach Cameron’s group who showed up with great attitudes despite her being unable to make it (we missed her so much!). Congrats to our numerous athletes who competed in their very first XCEL meet!

Between Coach Cameron’s and my group, we had 15/16 stuck beam routines which is phenomenal! Overall, I was so happy to see everyone’s camaraderie across groups, smiles, resilience, and focus. I love seeing everyone support each other even when we are nervous or stressed.

Both the Silvers and Bronzes placed second as a team with team scores of over 114. What a great way to kick off the season! Your dedication to refinement and strength during our practices is paying off already.

We will continue honing our confidence and technique over the rest of the season.  Congratulations! Keep up your hard work!”

Coach Israel: “As the Head Coach of the Xcel program at Ballard, I am very excited to see the technical and artistic progress of all the groups, as well as the effort all the coaches have put into maintaining a united and hardworking team. The coaches have worked hard to ensure that warm-ups are both elegant and dynamic, and that the effectiveness of the classes is outstanding. Thank you, coaches!

As the coach in charge of the Platinum group, I am very happy because I saw a remarkable improvement in their attitude as a team. We had 25 clean routines out of 26! This shows that the team’s consistency is on the right track, and it led them to win first place as a team!

We are working on improving our Start Value Score and making floor routines more elegant and precise. But step by step!

The physical and technical preparation “combos” we’ve been working on have paid off, as they didn’t show any signs of fatigue and were able to focus more on concentration and the details of their routines.

I am very proud of all of them! I also want to give a special mention to Amalia and Arya for completing their first competition in Platinum!”

Check out more Ballard highlights on Instagram and Facebook

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