Local Rope Jumpers Bring Home Gold Medals
The Cary YMCA Super Skippers brought home 10 overall gold medals from a regional jump rope competition in Chapel Hill attended by seven top competitive area jump rope teams. All Super Skippers participants, both boys and girls, qualified for the AAU Junior Olympic Competition to be held this summer.
Seven teams of nearly 200 jump rope athletes faced off in this AAU Junior Olympic qualifier held March 8 at UNC’s Fetzer Gym and hosted by the SkipSations! team of Chapel Hill. At the end of the day, the Cary Super Skippers walked away with nearly one third of the overall medals and nearly half of the single-event awards. The team swept the overall medals in the15-17-year-old female Singles Freestyle event, winning gold, silver and bronze. Super Skippers also dominated the Double Dutch category. Of 37 Double Dutch teams competing, the 11 Super Skippers Double Dutch teams received some of the highest marks as a whole, all finishing seventh place or above.
In addition to overall gold, the team won 12 overall silver medals and six overall bronze medals.
Participants also received individual ribbons for garnering top scores in single events. In addition to the overall medals, the Super Skippers team received 33 first-place ribbons, 32 second-place ribbons and 29 third-place ribbons.
In the Female Speed event, Super Skipper Jessie Robinson, 14, tied for top speed with Suzanne Cash, 19, of the SkipSations!, with 307 jumps in a minute.
The top 10 athletes in each age group in Male Singles, Female Singles, Pairs and Double Dutch qualified for the AAU Jr. Olympic Games to be held in Detroit in July.
The Super Skippers team consists of more than 60 athletes, both boys and girls, who compete in regional, national, and international competitions.