Stafford Takes Winterfest Invitational

Allison Brooks's legs were shaking so hard she thought she was going to get a charley horse.

Brooks, a senior at Stafford, had just watched her All-Met junior teammate Catie Frakes fall twice on the balance beam during the final rotation at the Winterfest Invitational at Colonial Forge High School yesterday. With Stafford holding a slim lead over state champion Stonewall Jackson, Brooks was the team's last hope, and she responded.

As an anguished Frakes and nervous coaches looked on, Brooks scored a 9.725, winning the event and guiding the Indians to their third Winterfest Blue Division title in four seasons. Stafford's score of 111.75 (three gymnasts counting) was 0.625 ahead of Stonewall Jackson (111.125). When Brooks hit the most difficult skill in her routine -- a back tuck -- Stafford assistant Beth Harris shook the shoulders of Coach Shawn Thurston emphatically.

"I felt so bad for Catie," Brooks said. "She is always the one who comes through for us so I just wanted to come through for her and the rest of the team. I pretty much knew I had to stay on beam."

Said Frakes: "I'm glad I had my team today. Shawn was talking to me after the beam, and she said that some days you're going to need Allison and everyone else the same way she'll need you."

The meet was the first time this season that the three likely contenders in the Virginia AAA Northwestern Region -- Stafford, Stonewall Jackson and Colonial Forge -- faced each other. But they were missing key components. Junior All-Met Gymnast of the Year Sam Brooks from Colonial Forge skipped the meet because of a club cheerleading competition. For Stafford, sophomore all-around Ashley-Nicole Carmichael was on vacation, and Raiders sophomore Kayla Deitz is out with an injured elbow. They are expected to return in two weeks when Stonewall Jackson hosts its invitational, which will also feature Northern Region favorite Lake Braddock.

Despite winning Winterfest last season, Stafford was the odd team out in the Northwestern Region meet, with Stonewall Jackson and Colonial Forge advancing to the state championship. But Allison Brooks believes this year is going to be different.

"When we get in trouble is when we let up, freak out and fall all over the place," she said. "As long as we stay on on every event, I think we can beat any team here,"

In the Green Division, North Stafford sophomore Carissa Potente took first in the all-around with a 37.9, winning three out of four events. The Wolverines also won the team competition, scoring a 99.975, 0.475 points ahead of Battlefield.

Beach Gymnast: Despite the late heroics of Stafford's Allison Brooks, no individual gymnast came close to junior Leslie Delima from Virginia Beach school Salem. Delima set a meet record in the all-around with a 38.925, highlighted by a record 9.9 score on her layout tsukahara vault (a round-off onto the apparatus and a layout, back flip off it).