Redwood Coast Gymnastics closes spring season with regional medals, strong vaults

At 12 years old, Momo Baxter gave Redwood Coast Gymnastics its clearest headline moment of the spring, placing fourth on vault with a 9.375 at the Level 6 Regional Championships in Petaluma on April 18-19. Her result set the tone for a program that spent the season sending local gymnasts onto bigger stages and coming home with proof that the pipeline in Eureka is working.

The strongest showing came next at the Xcel Gold Regional Championships in Park City, Utah, where Redwood Coast Gymnastics sent Maya Dalton, Hannah Naylor, Myiah Punch and Addie Bellerman. Dalton collected a silver medal on floor, set a personal record on bars and added another medal on vault. Naylor placed fifth on floor with a 9.3 and also posted a personal best on bars. Punch turned in the team’s top bars score at 9.45 and earned a beam medal after finishing eighth with a 9.1. Bellerman added a 9.1 on floor, helping round out a regional meet that showed how many routines this small program can put together under pressure.

That finish was not an isolated burst. Redwood Coast Gymnastics opened the spring at the California Grand Invitational in Anaheim on Jan. 10, where all seven athletes qualified for the 2026 State Championships, and Baxter won gold on vault in Xcel Gold competition. Two weeks later, the team sent 13 gymnasts to the Novato Classic on Feb. 7-8 and came back with multiple individual medals and team records, with every gymnast earning a state-qualifying score at her level. At the Spirit of the Flame meet in Concord on Feb. 27-28, the club finished third in the Xcel Gold division. Kaile’a Townsend scored a 9.55 on floor, setting a new Redwood Coast Gymnastics record for that event and level, and finished fourth all-around in the Older division with a 36.475. Bellerman also took bronze on vault with a 9.275.

The results reflect more than medals. Redwood Coast Gymnastics trains at Flips for Kids Gymnastics in Eureka and works across USA Gymnastics Development Program levels and Xcel tracks, including Gold and Silver, giving local athletes a path that can stretch from first routines to regional finals. The staff behind that run includes head coach Brian Van Pelt, assistant coach Rina Jernigan, and coaches Ava Gardner, Autumn Pires-Moore and Sara Punch. A March exhibition at Flips for Kids offered families a preview of state-championship routines and gave pre-team athletes their first chance to perform publicly, another sign that the program is building from the bottom up while sending its strongest gymnasts farther from Humboldt.