The Polarettes and Polar Tumblers Gymnastics Club sent two competitors to the Western Canadian Championships – one who had been there before and one who had not.

Corey Baxter competed in the Provincial 5 Open Women category and Andrew

Crist competed in the Level 4 Men at the championships, hosted by the Gymniks Gymnastics Club in Grande Prairie, Alta., from April 28-30.

In her second Westerns, Baxter narrowly missed reaching the vault finals by .05 points, instead picking up ninth place with 13.150 points while Saskatchewan gymnast Kaitlyn Clark finished eighth with 13.200.

Baxter placed 13th in floor, 19th in bars and tied for 18th in beam.

Polarettes head coach Jenn Ryan said Baxter's experience in last year's Westerns showed in her performances.

"Last year she was quite shaky on all of her events, and a little bit overwhelmed, I think, and this year she really stuck to what she should have been doing. It wasn't her best meet of the year, but she was just more relaxed, more calm, more confident,” Ryan said.

For Crist, this was not only his first Western Canadian Championships – it was just his second meet of the year.

He was one of the Yukon's six gymnasts to compete at the 2011 Canadian Linen & Uniform Service B.C. Gymnastics Championships in Langley, B.C., at the beginning of April.

He and Baxter qualified for Westerns based on results from the B.C. Championships.

In Langley, Crist won bronze on high bar and four more top 10 finishes for fifth all around and Baxter managed two top 10 finishes.

Most recently, Crist scratched the floor event – one of his strongest, Ryan noted – due to injury the previous week.

His best result in Grande Prairie was a 10th in the vault, followed by an 18th in the horizontal bar, a tie for 19th in the pommel horse and two 20th place finishes.

"It's a much bigger deal,” Ryan said of Westerns.

"The competition is restricted to the higher levels, level four and up for men, level five and up for women, so first they had to meet the qualifications to be in that level before they could go.”

And Crist was determined to meet that qualification, Ryan added.

As the only male gymnast left at the club, he trains 16 hours each week all on his own.

"His dedication is outstanding,” Ryan said, adding of both gymnasts' reaction to Westerns:

"It's definitely going to give them a lot more motivation – that's one of the big things I noticed whenever they go out for a meet, they come home and they're just so much more, ‘Yes, this is what we can do, this is what we're capable of doing', so that's the nicest thing about it.”

The next event for the club will be the Yukon Gymnastics Championships on June 4.

The club is also waiting to gauge the interest-level for competing in the Canada Western Summer Games held in Kamloops, B.C., in August.