The Polarettes Gymnastics Club held their 2023 Yukon Championships March 11 in Whitehorse.

This is the first time the club has held the Yukon Champs in March. Typically, it’s done in May or June.

“It was earlier in the season than we would normally do it but (we) wanted to try doing it a little bit earlier instead of a year-end event as kind of a prep meet because we have a fair bit of kids travelling out later in the season,” related Caron.

The gymnasts will be going to provincial, regional, and national events and competitions later in the spring.

The Star spoke with Development Coordinator Stephanie Caron last Monday following the event.

“I thought it went really great,” said Caron. “It was fabulously attended.”

54 kids competed in nine categories.

“The kids had a ton of fun,” related Caron. “We had some really big successes and it was really nice to have everyone back in the gym, all together. It’s really the first time we’ve had this many people post-COVID and going forward with their season.

“Last year, we had our season but it was a little delayed because of COVID, so we didn’t get a full season. It was really great to have so many kids involved at this point in the year.”

Their last full season was in 2019. Last year, they travelled from the end of March, as opposed to doing their usual travel from January to May.

For the Yukon Champs, the kids were split into two sessions, mostly based on the level and programs that the kids are in.

The first session was the XCEL Program. 23 kids competed in that session, which consisted of Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.

The second session was the Canadian Competitive Program, which consisted of Levels 4-9.

Caron said some of the young gymnasts stood out during the competition.

“We had some really fabulous outcomes for the XCEL Bronze. We had a number of kids, it was their first time doing Yukon Champs in that program. So it’s like their highlight of the year.

“Both of the kids that placed first overall in the XCEL Bronze categories were mega-standouts for us. They took it to the next level. They really showed the top end of that level. And that was really exciting. As the dev (development) coordinator, I work with these kids day in and day out, so it’s really great to see what happens when you put them in an environment with that competition and that team atmosphere, and they were fabulous.”

The two young standout gymnasts were Penny Lawrence and Nellie-Mai Quigley.

“We had a number of other kids competing (in) new levels for the first time, which was quite exciting. Some of them in December were in XCEL Bronze. Come January, I was thinking with their coach that maybe they’d be ready to try the Silver. And they did. And they absolutely crushed it.”

The three competing in XCEL Silver were Lanaya Jennings, Kaiya Kostelnik and Audrey Collon.

Other highlights for Caron were the team atmosphere and the cheering.

“The vibe in here on Saturday (March 11) was … so vibrant and so exciting and everybody was cheering for everyone. If they didn’t know the names of someone because they didn’t train with them very often, they were going out of their way to learn their names and support each other, which was pretty awesome and fabulous. It’s something we really try to encourage our team to be, even when we travel, as the team that goes out of their way to learn names and cheer for kids they maybe don’t train with.

“And it was really great to see it happening even in our home space.”

Next up was the Spring Break. “We’ve got a little bit of training happening during the break for some of the other kids,” said Caron.

At the end of March, there are nine athletes travelling to B.C. Champs for CCP level 6-9 in Surrey.

Mid-April, four kids are travelling to B.C. Champs Compulsory, CCP levels 4-5, in Langley.

Also in mid-April, nine young gymnasts are traveling to XCEL Champs in Lethbridge.

The big meet is April 25-30, the Western Canadian Championships in Spruce Grove, Alta. Four athletes will be competing there.

The last meet of the season will see 22 gymnasts head to the Delta Cash and Carry Cup May 5-7.

“That’s probably up there with one of the biggest delegations we’ve ever sent to an Outside meet,” related Caron.

The Category winners at the Yukon Champs were:

XCEL Program

Bronze 1 – Nellie-Mai Quigley & Gabriella MacDonald

Bronze 2 – Penny Lawrence

Silver 1 – Nunu Sageaktook

Silver 2 – Alice Crete-Bergeron & Audrey Collon

Gold – Bree Labelle

Platinum – Emma Duncan

Canadian Competitive Program

CCP 4 – Amelia Blackie

CCP 5 – Julianna Kennedy

CCP 6 – Chloe Tatsumi

CCP 7 – Taylor Kennedy

CCP 8 – Olivia Vangel

CCP 9 – Lily Witten

The complete list of results of the Yukon Champs can be found at: https://live.kscore.ca/results/yukon_champs23