Waverley Classic 2026: Premier and Sydney Academy Cross the Border to Make a Statement in Level 9

Waverley Gymnastics Centre hosted the 2026 Waverley Classic across three days and eleven sessions, from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 August, with several divisions split into as many as four parallel pools across those sessions. That's a lot of separate fields, and a lot of separate winners. Level 5 alone produced ten individual all-around champions across its three divisions. Every session crowned its own legitimate winner rather than one giant field, so there's no single story for most levels, but there's plenty worth talking about, including two interstate clubs, Premier Gymnastics Academy and Sydney Academy of Gymnastics, crossing the border to make their presence felt at the higher levels. We've got the full results from every session, so let's work through it level by level.

LEVEL 3: A DOUBLE FOR MELBOURNE ACROBATIC, AND AN INTRA-CLUB FINISH

Levels 3 and 4 don't get individual all-around results published, per Gymnastics Victoria's own policy, so it's team scores only through the early levels. LFK Dance and Gym's 109.175 in Division 3 Session 4B was the highest team score anywhere in Level 3, comfortably clear of BUGS Gymnastics on 105.475 in the same session. Melbourne Acrobatic Gymnastics Academy had two different squads win team titles, Division 1 Session 9B scoring 106.9 and Division 2 Session 4C on 105.275, and host club Waverley's own MT1 squad won Division 1 Session 9A with 106.825.

Division 3 Session 4C was an intra-club affair: PIT Gymnastics's White squad topped its own Blue squad, 102.35 to 100.975, with Flyaway Gymnastics Club's Silver squad third on 98.275.

LEVEL 4: MELBOURNE ACROBATIC DOES ANOTHER CLEAN SWEEP

Melbourne Acrobatic's Division 1 and Division 2 teams really do seem to be on a hot streak. Just a few weeks ago, both teams swept their respective events at the Jets Invitational, and neither has lost a Level 4 division title in any recorded result this season. At Waverley, the Division 1 squad won Session 1B, scoring 112.775, ahead of Cheltenham Youth Club (110.275) and Waverley's Blue squad (110.075), and the Division 2 squad* won Session 9 on 112.4, the second-highest team score of the level behind MAGA's Div 1 squad who scored 112.775. That Division 2 squad's win also marks its second cleared promotion cutoff of the year, more on that in Promotion Watch below.

Meanwhile, Session 10A was a real nail-biter between Melton and Flyaway, decided by just 0.15, 104.425 to 104.275, and PIT's White team beat its own Aqua squad in an intra-club finish to win Session 10C, 106.45 to 102.85. Session 10B went to Casey Gymnastics's Blue squad on 105.725, with PIT's Blue team 2nd on 104.325.

*Melbourne Acrobatic now has a second Division 2 squad, after its Division 3 team was promoted mid-season.

LEVEL 5: SYDNEY ACADEMY SWEEPS A FRACTURED FIELD

Level 5 was the day's biggest and most fractured field: the three divisions were split into ten different groups, spread across four sessions. The standout has to be Sydney, which swept every title on offer in Division 2's parallel sessions 8A and 8B. Amelia Ortega Rameriz won the individual all-around in Session 8A, scoring 35.825, Kavya Kolaskar won Session 8B on 36.175, and Sydney's own squads backed them up with both team titles, White on 105.85 in 8A and Silver on 107.425 in 8B.

Cheltenham's Sienna Quinn backed up a win at the Niddrie Invitational two weeks earlier with an even bigger one here, scoring 37.35 in Division 1 Session 1B, the highest individual score anywhere in Level 5. Clubmate Mija Mocevic went one better than her 3rd place at Niddrie, winning Session 1A outright on 36.1. In Division 1 Session 5A, Melbourne Acrobatic's Lily Chiu (36.608) held off clubmate Luckshetha Mauran (36.516) by just 0.092, and that club's Level 5 Division 1 team backed up the individual result with a team win of its own on 109.865.

LEVEL 6: PREMIER SWEEPS THE PODIUM, TWICE

Premier put on the most dominant display of the weekend in Level 6 Division 1's single session, filling the entire individual podium, Lyla Hair (37.225), Penelope Best (36.85) and Ivy Overton (36.6), and winning the team title too on 110.675.

Premier backed that up in Division 2 Session 6B, sweeping the individual podium again (Mia Atkinson 37.225, Kalea-Rose Morgan 37.0, Harriet Brown 36.825) and winning that session's team event, scoring 112.575. Melbourne Acrobatic answered in Division 3 Session 6A, sweeping its own podium (Tinara Wijendra Arachchige 35.525, Dhyuthishri Sendil 35.0, Olivia Baillie 34.6) and adding the team title with a score of 105.975. Flyaway took the other Division 3 session, 6B, both individually (Grace Maley on 35.375) and as a team with 103.75.

LEVEL 7: THE TIGHTEST MARGIN OF THE WEEKEND

Level 7 ran across four parallel sessions in Division 1 alone. Melbourne Acrobatic's Indigo Gration won Session 11A, scoring 47.85, her best score of the season based on the Victorian results in our database. A year ago at this same competition she was competing in Level 5 Division 2, so quite the jump for her. Her club's Level 7 team also won Session 11A on 141.6, with MLC Gymnastics Club (139.05) and MYC Gymnastics (134.55) rounding out the podium.

Sydney's Taylor Snelling posted 48.15 in Session 2B, the highest individual score of the level, with clubmate Harlow Murtha 2nd on 47.1; Sydney's team also won that session on 141.45. Premier's Mylah Watson won Session 2A, scoring 47.05, and the club's team took that session's title too with a solid 138.85.

One of the tightest finishes anywhere in the competition came in Session 11B: MYC's Eva Mullins (45.7), edging Melbourne Acrobatic's Isla Saffin (45.65) by just 0.05.

Division 2 was tighter across the board. Melbourne Acrobatic's Liza Hyndman won Session 3A on 45.35, and the club's team took that session's title too with 132.8, while Sydney's Kashish Sharma won Session 3B, scoring 46.5 (Premier taking that session's team title on 137.45). Geelong YMCA Gym Club also had a good session: the club won Session 7's team event, scoring 131.15, and its Mariah Milne won that session's all-around outright on 43.95, though she agonisingly missed the level's promotion cutoff despite the win (see below).

LEVEL 8: THE HOST CLUB TAKES CENTRE STAGE

Host club Waverley's Maria Jin won Division 1's single session with 46.7, capping a multi-year climb, Level 5 in 2024, Level 7 through 2025, and now a Level 8 title. Waverley's Gabriella Da Costa was 3rd in the same field on 45.35, and the club's team, competing alone in the division, posted 134.1.

Division 2's team event was a genuine photo finish, and an intra-club one at that: Pulse Gymnastics's Teal squad pipped its own Black squad 123.35 to 123.3, with MLC a close 3rd on 123.15. Gymnastics Unlimited Aust Ltd's Dakota Mulder won the individual all-around on 43.55.

LEVEL 9: PREMIER AND SYDNEY ACADEMY MAKE THEIR STATEMENT

Division 1 was the interstate visitors' biggest statement of the weekend. Premier and Sydney took every place on the individual podium between them, no Victorian gymnast got a look in, and Premier's team went a step further, its 143.45 clearing host club Waverley's 130.7 by 12.75. Sydney's Aimee Cooper won the individual all-around with 48.9, the second-highest score of the entire competition, with Premier's Saige Davidson 2nd on 48.35 and Emmerson Alcorn 3rd on 47.85.

In Division 2, Gymnastics Unlimited's Paige Galbraith won, scoring 44.1, just clearing the level's promotion cutoff, and host club Waverley's Greta Brown was 3rd on 42.0.

LEVEL 10: RODRIGUES CAPS THE COMEBACK

Michaela Rodrigues gave the home crowd exactly what it wanted, winning Division 1, scoring 49.25 (vault 13.8, bars 12.55, beam 11.15, floor 11.75), the highest individual all-around score of the entire Waverley Classic. Based on the Victorian results in our database, it's her best score at a Victorian competition since the WAG Trial 1/Border Challenge Trial 1 in late April, and a real rebound from a difficult few months that included a 23.3 at the Waverley Invite in May (no score recorded on vault or beam that day) and a 17th-place finish at the Senior Victorian Championships. Clubmate Keira Woon was 2nd on 48.45.

Waverley also went 1-2 in Division 2, Maisie Brown (42.8) ahead of Hayley Browne (42.4), with Bentleigh McKinnon Gymnastics Club winning that division's only team event with 113.95.

PROMOTION WATCH

Thirty-five individual scores cleared their level's promotion cutoff at the Waverley Classic, more than any other single competition this season, a function of just how many sessions were on offer. A handful of stories stood out.

Melbourne Acrobatic's Level 4 Division 2 squad is the headline act. Unbeaten in all four of its competitions this season (Niddrie, Knox, Jets and now Waverley), it has cleared the Division 1 cutoff of 109.5 twice, at Knox (111.8) and again here (112.4), confirming its promotion. It'll compete in Division 1 at the upcoming regionals, a tougher field, but its own scores this season, several in the 108 to 112 range, sit right alongside what Division 1 teams have been posting, so it should still be competitive.

Melbourne Acrobatic's Liza Hyndman finally cleared the Level 7 Division 2 cutoff (44.0) on her fourth outing this season, winning Session 3A on 45.35. Flyaway had a strong weekend of its own: five different gymnasts cleared cutoffs across Level 5 Division 3 and Level 6 Division 3 alone, Quinn Hallandale, MacKenzie Janissen and Emma Marshall in the former, Grace Maley and Isabel Neil in the latter, all for the first time this season.

Not everyone got over the line. Geelong's Mariah Milne won her Level 7 Division 2 session outright but finished just 0.05 short of the 44.0 cutoff, on 43.95, an almost identical story to her near-miss at the Judges Invitational the previous week. Casey Gymnastics's Silver squad missed the Level 4 Division 3 team cutoff by 0.2, on 103.3.

That about wraps up the Waverley Classic, but there's so much more the data can tell us than just who stood on the podium. Casey Gymnastics's Madison Huynh finished 24th in a stacked Level 7 Division 2 field, but her all-around score has climbed in each of her last three competitions, 32.75, then 35.4, then 36.35 here. In that same field, Aerodynamix's Isabella Yang came in 27th, but her all-around jumped 5.35 points from her previous outing three weeks earlier, mostly on the back of a beam score that leapt from 5.95 to 10.45.

There are probably even more stories like that in the data if you look hard enough. So remember, if you didn't walk away with a medal, this sport is about more than just winning bling, it's about trying to improve every day. Sometimes that improvement comes in the form of a trophy, sometimes it's a personal best, and sometimes it's only falling off the beam twice instead of three times. All you can do is point your toes, and try to stick the landing.

Full results from the 2026 Waverley Classic are up on the results page.