Loni Nicole Manalia Tumbles Her Way to the Top
On April 2nd and 3rd Loni competed is the USTA State Tumbling meet in Decatur, IL where she participated in 3 events. She placed 3rd in Tumbling sud-advanced level, 3rd in Trampoline advanced level, and 4th in Double Mini advanced level. The level of competition advanced, sub-advanced etc… is determined by age.
Loni qualified for the USTA National Championship meet in West Virginia in all 3 events. This year will mark the 8th time Loni has competed in the National Championship meet, and she is a 3 time national champ. In 2003 she was the National Champ on the Trampoline. She won the Double-Mini National Champ in 2005, as well as the Tumbling National Champ in 2008.
She is coached by Becky Adams and Jen Tibbs at the Sportabouts Tumbling and Trampoline Center in Virden and is the daughter of Rhonda and Loni Manalia. Loni is the granddaughter of Leonard and Alice Blevins, Mel Manalia and Jack Settles.
Despite only being a teenager, Loni has already been tumbling for 12 years and is a multi-sport star at Gillespie High School. At GHS she plays volleyball, basketball, softball, and runs track.
When asked how she finds time to fit tumbling into her already busy schedule Loni said “It’s tuff but my tumbling coach is great. She let’s me come to practice any night that fits into my schedule, and my tumbling meets are usually on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. Sometimes I have to miss the Saturday meets because of high school sports, but for the most part I just make it work. Spring is the hardest time to fit it in with track and softball going on at the same time. Sometimes I’ll have track, softball, and tumbling practice all in the same night.”
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Posted by Pete V
on Monday, May 9th, 2011. Filed under Community News, Featured, Local Sports, Other, This Week's News, Town News.
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