Bath YMCA gymnasts place fourth in first national championship appearance

The Bath Area Family YMCA finished fourth overall at the YMCA National Gymnastics Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina, after sending its Platinum-level team to the meet for the first time. The championship ran June 27 through July 1 and drew more than 1,800 athletes from across the United States.

Sadie West of Wiscasset gave Bath one of its biggest individual results, winning a national title on floor exercise and placing second overall in the Youth Division. Her finish put a local gymnast on top of one event while helping the Bath squad secure its fourth-place team standing in a national field that stretched far beyond Sagadahoc County.

The result matters well beyond the medal count. Bath YMCA says its gymnastics classes have served the community for more than 40 years, reaching youth from Bath, Brunswick, Woolwich, West Bath, Freeport, Yarmouth, Topsham and beyond. A national finish at this level gives the program a concrete boost with families choosing where to enroll children, and it gives the branch a stronger case when it looks for fundraising support for coaches, travel and competition expenses.

The Bath association’s roots go back to May 1856 at Central Church in Bath, making it one of the oldest YMCAs in the country. Organized gymnastics at the Bath facility began in 1973, when retired Navy officer and physical director Woody Appleton started a competitive program. Three years later, the team won its first state championship, and Bath YMCA says the program went on to capture state titles repeatedly from 1976 through 1989, with only one exception.

Coach Kym Granger is part of the gymnastics staff, and Jennie Bakewell helped accept the 2025 Region 6 Xcel Club of the Year award. Together with the national finish in Greensboro, those milestones show a program that has moved from a longtime local offering into one of the Bath YMCA’s most visible competitive successes.