Coach Melynda Murkerson’s Bainbridge Gymnast-A-Cats are national champions.

They captured the coveted first place team championship out of all 50 states at a national meet held July 1-4 at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla. They won 23 gold medals, 21 silver medals, 23 bronze medals and a total of 109 individual medals.

“The Cats’ paws shown bright,” coach Murkerson said after the Disney World national competition.

Kate Vann started the Gymnast-A-Cats off on a roll by scoring a perfect 10.0 on the vault. She was the only gymnast given a perfect score out of the entire competition, which consisted of 1350 gymnasts from around the nation.

The Gymnast-A-Cats walked away with exceptional victories at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) women’s age group national gymnastics championship.

They scored the top four individual apparatus scores given out at nationals. McKenzie Findley scored two 9.90’s on the vault and beam and Karlie Bridges scored a 9.90 on the vault along with teammate Kate Vann’s perfect 10.0.

Four gymnasts won the honor of being first all-around gymnasts in their age division.

Sarah Oliver won back to back AAU state all-around championships and won this year’s overall national championship.

McKenzie Findley, who won state and nationals this year as well, scored highest all-around with a 39.225 out of 40.00. It was the highest overall score given to anyone in the entire national competition.

Teammate Maigain Haire scored the second highest all-around in the nation with a 39.175. She also won first place in her age division.

Karlie Bridges was also very impressive in her performance, winning first place all around gymnast in her age division.

“These are a truly amazing group of talented young gymnasts.” coach Murkerson said. “When practice first started back in August, I knew they were going to be good, but I still can’t get over the shock about how well they competed at nationals. This is one of the best groups I have worked with in my 40 years of coaching.”

Following are the Gymnast-A-Cats places in individual events:

McKenzie Findley: Gold on vault, Gold on Bars, Gold on Beam, Gold on Floor, and Gold All Around

Megan Haire: Gold on Bars, Gold on Beam, Gold on Floor, and Gold All Around, Silver on Vault

Karlie Bridges: Gold on Vault, Gold on Floor, and Gold All Around

Sarah Oliver: Gold on Beam, Gold All Around, Bronze on Vault

Allie Deal: Gold on Vault, Silver on Bars, Silver on Beam, Silver on Floor, Silver All Around

AnnaLee Lockhart: Gold on Vault, Silver All Around, Bronze on Bars,

Caroline Middleton: Gold on Beam, Silver on Floor

Lanie Birdsong: Gold on Bars, Bronze on Beam

Kate Vann: Gold on Vault, Bronze on Floor, Bronze All Around

McKenna Stegall: Gold on Vault, Silver on Bars

Bree Powell: Gold on Vault, Bronze on Beam

Emily Chambers: Gold on Beam, Silver on Vault, Bronze All Around

Jerri Sloan: Gold on Bars, Bronze on Vault

Briana Mills: Gold on Beam Bronze on Vault

Catherine Stegall: Silver on Vault, Silver on Beam, Bronze on Floor, Silver All Around

Sarah-Kaylee Wynn: Silver on Beam, Bronze on Vault, Bronze All Around

Gabrielle Hardy: Silver on Bars, Bronze on Floor, Bronze All Around

Breanna Dean: Silver on Beam, Silver All Around, Bronze on Vault

Emily Perkins: Silver on Vault, Silver on Beam, Bronze on Bars

Haylie Wilkinson: Silver on Beam, Silver on Floor

Macey Roland: Silver on Beam, Bronze on All Around

Sydney Thompson: Bronze on Bars, Bronze All Around

Jessie Oliver: Bronze on Vault

Kay Bush: Bronze on Floor

Lucy Sloan: Bronze on Bars