Texas gymnast wins two golds at the Las Vegas Go For It Classic

Monday, Feb. 8, 1999 | 11:20 a.m.

Elite Texas gymnast Kaitlin White won two gold medals Sunday in women's artistic individual event finals as the fourth Las Vegas Go For It Classic ended at Cashman Center.

In the 16-athlete open event finals, which featured a combination of the top athletes from elite and level 10 categories from scores earned in Friday's all-around competition, White won the floor exercise with a 9.700 score and then came back with a 9.750 to capture the vault. The 12-year old gymnast, who finished tied for third in the all-around on Friday, competes for World Olympic Gymnastics of Plano, Texas.

Claiming the other two open individual gold medals at the nation's largest gymnastics festival were level 10 gymnast Tany Powers and Las Vegas' level 10 gymnast Huneth Lor.

Power's 9.825 score won the uneven parallel bars. Her score was the highest in any event at the meet. Powers competes for Sunbelt Gymnastics of Colleyville, Texas.

Lor, an 11-year old from the Las Vegas Flyers, captured the gold in the balance beam with a 9.75. Her Las Vegas Flyers teammates Kacey Oiness and Karen Nielson won the silver and bronze medals with 9.60 and 9.575 scores respectively. The trio is coached by Jiani Wui, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist in the beam.

Las Vegas' Erica Ficarrotta, who competes for the Go For It Perfectors, won two individual gold medals, taking balance beam (9.400) and floor exercise (9.500). Winning the other two level 9 golds were Tiffany Tolnay, Sunbelt Gymnastics of Colleyville, Texas, in vault (9.350) and Emily Burt, of the Arlington (Texas) Academy of Gymnastics, in uneven parallel bars (9.500).

Las Vegas' 10-year old Anna Li, coached by her mother Jiani Wui on the Las Vegas Flyers, took the level 8 balance beam gold with a 9.800 score. The other level 8 individual gold medal winners were: Shannon Hong, New Hope Academy, Fountain Valley, Calif., in vault (9.275); Ashley Sanchez, Gold Cup Gymnastics, Albuquerque, N.M., in uneven parallel bars (9.625) and Sarah Spencer, World Olympic Gymnastics, Plano, Texas, in floor exercise (9.775).

Among the all-around champions crowned during this year's event were five winners from the Southern Nevada area. Winning in women's artistic were Tasha Schwikert of Gym Cats Gymnastics (elite), Kacey Oinessof the Las Vegas Flyers (level 10), Erica Ficarrotta of the Go For It Perfectors (level 9), and Anna Li of the Las Vegas Flyers (level 8). Justin Leavitt of Dusty Ritter Gymnastics won the men's artistic all-around in elite/class I.

The Classic, which was produced by the Las Vegas Organizing Committee, featured 2,200 gymnasts from 35 states, Australia and Canada. The festival included competition in women's artistic, men's artistic, rhythmic, general gymnastics, and trampoline and tumbling.