2018 USA Gymnastics Championships: West York's Trinity Thomas in top 5

Shelly Stallsmith
York Daily Record
Trinity Thomas wipes her brow during practice Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, at Prestige Gymnastics in Lancaster County. Sisters Trinity Thomas, 16, and Tesia Thomas, 14, are different athletes in their own right, but each excels in her chosen discipline. Trinity Thomas is a gymnast on the U.S. senior national team who will attend Team USA's selection camp this month for a shot at a place on the squad for the world championships. Tesia Thomas is a standout three-season athlete for West York, where she plays volleyball, swims and is on the track and field team.

West York's Trinity Thomas is halfway toward her goal of making the USA gymnastics team.

The teen, who practices at Prestige in Lancaster, sits in fifth place after the preliminaries round of competition at the 2018 U.S. Championships.

As expected, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles is running away with the competition, holding down first place by more than three points. Her total of 60.1 is her highest since the Rio Games.

Competition concludes Sunday night in Boston. It will air live on NBC beginning at 8 p.m. EDT.

Thomas started the competition off on balance beam. One of her strongest events, her score of 13.75 put her in 10th place after the first rotation. She followed that with a 13.35 on floor exercise that included a move that paid homage to her new team, the University of Florida.

The Florida freshman moved up two more spots in the standings after scoring a 14.0 in the vault in the third rotation. She closed with a 14.40 on the uneven parallel bars that was bested only by Biles' 14.80, 14.65 by Morgan Hurd and a 14.50 by Riley McCusker.

After Biles, the rest of the top 10 is Hurd, 57.0; McCusker, 56.050; Grace McCallum, 55.90; Thomas, 55.50; Shilese Jones, 55.30; Jade Carey, 54.95; Kara Eaker, 54.80 and defending all-around champion Ragan Smith, Shania Adams and Alyona Shchennikova at 53.75.

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