Jasmine Gonzales wins All Around National Champion

Train at the Josephine Guzman Youth Center in Somersville Towne Center

By Ana Walker

Three girls from the Empower Gymnastics Academy team in Antioch recently placed first in two competitions, second in one and third in another at the National Gymnastics Association (NGA) National Championships in Anaheim, CA.

Academy owners Mike and Natalie Guzman run the competitive team at the Josephine Guzman Youth Center’s (JGYC) which offers a recreational gymnastics program for girls. It is named for Mike’s mother and located inside the Somersville Towne Center in Antioch.

The Academy’s Gold and Platinum levels compete throughout California to qualify for the Western Regional Zone Championships in Reno, last month and this year they qualified for Nationals. The team competes in four events – bars, beam, floor and vault.

Three girls from the Academy’s Gold level, Jasmine Gonzales, Josette Walker and Kaira Nwamuo, competed against girls from 27 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. They received first place on the floor routine, first place on beam routine with highest score of the meet, second place on bars and third place on vault.

A post on the JGYC Gymnastics Facebook page on June 11, 2024, reads, “This weekend was a success!!! Our Gold & Platinum competed in Anaheim at NGA Nationals & absolutely rocked it!!!

Jasmine – Beam National Champion & All-Around National Champion!

Josette – Floor National Champion!

Congrats to our champions.”

In gymnastics the athletes get individual and team scores. Beam Queen award was given to Josette and Jasmine for scoring 9.7 or higher on beam (out of 10). All three girls earned the Top Three spot as an Empower Team together. In the meet there was no placement but rather Top 3 or Top 5.

Josette received floor champ and Jasmine received all around champ

The two winners have been invited to the National team camp in Tennessee which is offered only to the top 30 girls. 

To learn more, to try out for the team or visit the gym, call (925) 350-0215.

Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.

the attachments to this post:

Josette Walker, Kaira Nwamuo & Jasmine Gonzales at Natls & on the floor

Kaira, Jasmine All Around & Josette and Jasmine JGYC

This entry was posted on Friday, June 14th, 2024 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Business, Honors & Awards, News, Sports, Youth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.