Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy's Lexie Priessman holds a strong lead after the first day of junior women's competition at the 2012 Visa Championships, scoring 59.2 across her four routines.

Priessman started the day with solid routines on bars (14.15) and beam (14.1), where she showed a standing full and a rare full-twisting double back dismount - nearly stuck.  Priessman didn't look back heading into her two best pieces, floor and vault, where she distanced herself from the other contenders.  

On floor, Priessman nailed her tumbling, including a tucked double-double and a full-in dismount.  Her score of 15.25 was the highest of the night by .550.  On vault, she competed an Amanar and corrected her mistake from Secret Classic.  The score of 15.7 clinched the lead after day one.

In second was Bailie Key of Texas Dreams, who hit all of her routines to finish near the top (57.55).  Key showed a powerful double-twisting Yurchenko (15.0) to lead after the first rotation, and then ended with clean exercise on floor (14.7) to edge out Secret Classic champion Simone Biles by .15.

Biles (57.4) started off slow on bars (13.75) and beam (13.8), but showed cleaner lines and execution on bars than in the past.  On floor, Biles tumbled a big double layout immediate stag jump, but small errors kept her score at 14.05.  She ended the day with an explosive Amanar on vault, scoring a meet-high 15.8.  

GAGE's Madison Desch (57.2) came in fourth, beginning the day with a save on her full-twisting layout on beam (14.3).  She showed a lovely floor routine, but absorbed a few insecure landings and an out of bounds deduction.  On vault, she showed a double-twisting Yurchenko (14.7) and closed out her day with a hit set on bars (13.85).

Priessman's Cincinnati teammate Amelia Hundley also had a successful day, scoring 56.75 for fifth place.  Hundley was solid across the board, scoring 13.95 on bars, 14.3 on beam (standing full), 14.15 on floor (stuck piked full-in) and 14.35 for her double-twisting Yurchenko vault.  

Defending champion Katelyn Ohashi had a rough day, falling to sixth in the standings (56.65).  Ohashi opened the day on floor with a piked full-in landed low (14.4) and then watered down her vault to a full-twisting Yurchenko.  On bars, Ohashi saved a crooked turn (14.35) but couldn't correct an error on her layout full series on beam, and took a fall - the same skill she missed at Classics.

The junior women's competition concludes on Sunday at 10 a.m. CST.

Watch more video of 2012 Visa Championships on gymnastike.org

All-around

1.  Lexie Priessman, Cincinnati, Ohio, 59.200

2.  Bailie Key, Coppell, Texas, 57.550

3.  Simone Biles, Spring, Texas, 57.400

4.  Madison Desch, Lenexa, Kan., 57.200

5.  Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 56.750

6.  Katelyn Ohashi, Plano, Texas, 56.650

7.  Peyton Ernst, Coppell, Texas, 55.400

8.  Nia Dennis, New Albany, Ohio, 54.500

9.  Polina Shchennikova, Arvada, Colo., 54.450

10.  Veronica Hults, Allen, Texas, 54.200

 

Vault

1.  Simone Biles, Spring, Texas, 15.800

2.  Lexie Priessman, Cincinnati, Ohio, 15.700

3.  Bailie Key, Coppell, Texas, 15.000

4.  Madison Desch, Lenexa, Kan., 14.700

5.  Peyton Ernst, Coppell, Texas, 14.400

Uneven bars

1.  Polina Shchennikova, Arvada, Colo., 14.650

2.  Katelyn Ohashi, Plano, Texas, 14.350

3.  Lexie Priessman, Cincinnati, Ohio, 14.150

4.  Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 13.950

5.  Madison Desch, Lenexa, Kan., 13.850

Balance beam

1.  Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 14.300

1.  Madison Desch, Lenexa, Kan., 14.300

3.  Bailie Key, Coppell, Texas, 14.250

4.  Veronica Hults, Allen, Texas, 14.200

4.  Katelyn Ohashi, Plano, Texas, 14.200

Floor exercise

1.  Lexie Priessman, Cincinnati, Ohio, 15.250

2.  Bailie Key, Coppell, Texas, 14.700

3.  Katelyn Ohashi, Plano, Texas, 14.400

4.  Madison Desch, Lenexa, Kan., 14.350

5.  Amelia Hundley, Hamilton, Ohio, 14.150

For full results visit HERE.