I do not understand why they separate the girls by ages in this sport. I have seen this one too many times this year and it does not make sense. Girls who are younger seem to get higher scores and because they are in a more competitive group they place lower. One of my daughters friends got a higher score than my daughter in beam (my daughter is in the next age bracket) and she did not place while my daughter got a medal and placed. What really has irritated me was one of the girls at my daughters gym the youngest level 8 gets the highest score out of all the other girls in the gym at states but does not qualify to regionals while some of the older girls who got lower scores were able to qualify. This seems really unfair. I wonder why everybody is in such a rush to move these young girls through the levels when things like this happen. It is very discouraging.