Madison Gymnastics Center sends off first girl to Western National Competition
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Three boys from Eastern Idaho will be representing Idaho at the Gymnastics Junior Olympic National Championship in Oklahoma City May 9-13th. Justin Packard heads the Madison Gymnastics Men’s Team who these boys compete for. Five Idaho gymnasts qualified from the Regional meet held in Eugene, OR in April; and three are from Southeastern Idaho: Zackery Lerwill age 16 (Level 10) out of Sugar City, James Smart age 14 (Level 9) out of Rexburg, and Logan Havas age 11 (Level 8) out of Idaho Falls train year around to work for this qualifying event.
REXBURG — The first female Junior Olympian from Madison Gymnastics Center will compete in the floor, beam, vault and bars events at the Western Championships Saturday in Sandy, Utah.
Charity Hepworth, 15, recently qualified for the competition during a regional meet in Seattle. Charity placed fourth all around, and along with some six other top athletes in her age division that will be representing Region 2 during the Western Championship.
“I tried really hard. I put a lot of dedication into it,” Charity said.
Head girls team coach Valerie Gardner said boys have a chance to qualify for nationals at a lower level because of less competition among the gender. But young female athletes aren’t able to qualify for a Junior Olympic National Competition until they achieve a level 10 in the sport. Since Charity is only a level 9 the Western Championship is the highest competition for her level.
Charity is one of only two girls in eastern Idaho to get to the Western Championship this year.
“We’ve had lots of boys go to nationals and have the opportunity to compete there, but this is our first chance to have an athlete go to Westerns on our girl’s team,” Gardner said. “It is a hard sport to do well in because there is so much competition especially as you move up to higher levels.”
Charity has been competing by herself for a number of years as the most advanced young woman at the gymnastics center.
“She’s led the way in progressing through the levels at our gym and has really set an example to all the other girls by being able to put in the hours needed, and by being able to go to the competitions and continually progress through the levels,” Gardner said.
Charity said it’s been hard to progress in the sport with no other girl athletes at her level to push her.
“You have to learn how to push yourself to be the greatest,” Charity said. “Living in a certain region … you always compete against the same girls … seeing girls from states like New Mexico, and California is really cool and you can see what skills they’ve worked on.”
Gardner said this is her first time going to a Western national Competition.
“I’m really excited to get to go to Western Nationals with Charity. This will be the first time that I’ve got to bring any athletes and I’m excited to see the venue that we’re at, and it’s great that it’s so close just in the Salt Lake area,” Gardner said.
The competition is being held from May 4 thru 6 in Sandy, Utah. Region 2 covers Alaska Hawaii, Idaho Oregon, Washington, and Montana.
The competitor says gymnastics isn’t her only passion, she also participates in art classes, golf, basketball and music.
Knowing that I’m the first girl to go to Westerns makes me feel really happy inside, and excited, and I’m hoping for the best,”
States represented throughout the Western competition consist of states as far west as California and Oregon, and as far East as Arkansas and Wisconsin. Alaska and Hawaii will also be represented during the competition.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Reporter Natalia Hepworth and Charity Hepworth, the subject of this article, are sisters.