Konnor McClain wins 2022 Winter Cup less than a year after moving to WOGA
Konnor McClain (WOGA) won the senior women’s 2022 Winter Cup all-around title on Saturday at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, just nine months after abruptly leaving Revolution Gymnastics to train under Valeri Liukin.
While McClain’s selection to the 2021 world championship team was a major milestone after the switch, Saturday’s win is proof of just how far the gymnast has come in the past year.
“I’ve never felt so positive and happy at a meet,” McClain said after the meet, in which she topped the field of 26 with an all-around total of 54.300.
Never lacking in the talent column, the 17-year-old has been vocal about how moving to WOGA has helped her enjoy the sport more and approach training in a healthier way.
With a refined mentality, McClain was able to win the senior women’s title despite doing a watered-down layout as the final pass in her floor routine (13.150) and making a small error on bars (12.450).
“I’m definitely not where I’m supposed to be right now,” McClain said. “I came here to get back out there and see how the competition’s going – where I am. My last pass is going to be a double pike, which if you watched world trials, I landed on my head, so I didn’t want to do that again [just yet].”
On vault, McClain earned a 14.100 (9.100 E-score) for her double-twisting Yurchenko. Her mastery of the skill begs the question: is an Amanar (Yurchenko 2.5) next?
“It is,” McClain confirmed. “We didn’t know if we wanted to do it at this competition. I’ve been doing it a lot at practice lately. We stuck with the double this time. I feel like it’s definitely coming in the future, especially with the vault I did today.”
In the final rotation, McClain delivered the best routine of the day on beam, scoring the highest mark of the competition with a 14.600.
It was one of the best, if not the best, beam routines McClain has ever executed in competition. She even surprised herself with her performance, which included a standing full, two-footed layout series, and a double pike dismount.
“Before I started I wanted to cry,” McClain revealed. “It was a different type of feeling. I made it almost all the way through the meet and beam was my last event… I’m always off a little bit on my mount, and this time I was on. I just knew then, and then once I did my full, I just kept going. Honestly, I’m so surprised with the beam routine, even though I do it like that in practice all the time. It was just so crazy doing that in the meet, finally. I always wobble my layout, and then I never make my connection. So to do that was pretty cool.”
If you looked close enough, viewers might have caught a glimpse of the initials MM on McClain’s leotard today. The initials stand for Marc McClain – her dad, who passed away last year after contracting COVID-19.
McClain designed the leo for her and her teammates, something she always did at her last gym. While one of her coaches, Anna, usually takes those honors at WOGA, she was given the honor this meet.
“At practice this week, [Anna] gave me the patch with the MM, which is my dad’s initials, to put on the back of my leo,” McClain shared. “It was black and gold, and it’s really special to me. It was so special that she gave it to me and made it for me, so it’s gonna be on every leo this year.”
2021 Winter Cup balance beam champion Skye Blakely (WOGA) finished second in the all-around on Saturday with a 53.700.
After tearing the UCL ligament in her elbow at 2021 Olympic Trials, Blakely was excited to make her all-around return in Frisco, hitting all four of her routines.
2021 world team member eMjae Frazier (Parkettes) rounded out the podium in third.
Frazier battled McClain for the lead through the first three rotations, winning floor with a 13.500, but she peeled off the uneven bars during her Pak salto in the final rotation, ultimately finishing third.
“I was actually kind of close when I caught the bar on my Nabieva, but I still went for the Pak because sometimes I can recover,” Frazier said. “But my hands hit the bar and kind of slipped off, and then I flipped over. I think I just got a little ahead of myself because, after I fell, I got myself together, I made sure I was okay, and then I finished the bar routine.”
While three experienced seniors finished atop the podium, there were plenty of glimpses of up-and-coming talent on Saturday.
WOGA first-year senior Ashlee Sullivan finished fourth (52.850), and fellow first-year Katelyn Jong (Metroplex) tied for fifth with Airborne’s Nola Matthew (52.650).
Matthews, also a first-year senior, won the uneven bar title with a 13.950.
Joscelyn Roberson (N.E. Texas Elite) rounded out a successful senior debut with a win on vault, albeit she was only one of two athletes to compete two vaults, which is required to be eligible for the title.
Roberson earned an average of 13.125 for the two skills: a double-twisting Yurchenko (12.900) and Yurchenko half-on front layout (13.350).
She also tied McClain for the highest D-score of the day on beam (6.1).
“I love difficulty,” Roberson said. “I’ve never wanted to water down my routines ever. It’s one of the things that me and my coaches laugh about because they ask me, ‘Hey, do you want to water down and just make it an easier meet?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I want to try… I want to try to succeed at what I’m capable of doing. I just really have to work on calming my nerves, so I can get all the difficulty that I want.”
For a full play-by-play recap of the senior women’s competition at the 2022 Winter Cup, visit our live blog of the event here. Click here for full results. The full broadcast replay and individual routines can be viewed on USA Gymnastics’ new streaming platform FlipNow.
