Local gymnasts make nationals

    Dodge City's Alexis Estrada, age 9, and Ingalls' Kaisha Batman, age 10, will represent southwest Kansas at the 2008 AAU Age Group National Championship meet July 1 and 2 in Orlando, Fla. The meet begins Monday, and ends July 3 and will take place at Disney's Wide World of Sports.
    The gymnasts have been training for three years under Janet Smith, who has taught gymnastics for 25 years. A typical week includes seven hours of training.
    "Gymnastics is almost a dying sport and if girls weren't as dedicated as Kaisha and Alexis are, you wouldn't see gymnastics in southwest Kansas," said Smith.
    The girls made it to the national meet by placing second in the all-around competition within their age group at the state AAU gymnastics meet, which this year took place in Independence, Miss. All-around competition consists of routines on the uneven bars, the beam, the vault and a floor exercise, and competitors must finish first, second or third at their state meet to go to the national meet.
    Both girls said the floor exercise was their favorite part of the competition.