Flip City Gymnastics Centre's "evil little munchkin" is starting to make an impact, provincially.

Maya Crutch, who recently turned nine, swept the 10-and-under age division by taking home a trio of gold medals from the first of three trampoline and tumbling trials for B.C.

Maya delivered gold medal performances in tumbling, double mini trampoline (DMT), and trampoline during the Dec. 16-18 meet in Pitt Meadows. She was up against 20 athletes from across the province in both DMT and trampoline.

"I was really excited," Maya said. "I was really surprised and I didn't think I was going to go that far."

The next two B.C. trials, held Feb. 4-5 and 24-26, will serve as a leadup to the provincials March 16-18 in Kamloops. In addition to individual events at the provincial competition, Maya plans to compete in synchro trampoline with her friend and Flip City teammate, Madeline Haugen.

Marks from the three trials will be tallied together to determine the winners for the year, and will place athletes from various clubs on the B.C. team competing at the Western Canada Cup May 11-13 in Edmonton.

Maya, a member of Flip City along with her 13-year-old sister Sunita, trains as many as 26 hours per week at the centre's gym in Walnut Grove.

"She [Maya] lives here," Maya's dad Mike said recently at Flip City. "She trains 17 hours on the artistic side, and another four-to-six hours on the 't-and-t' [trampoline and tumbling] side."

Maya, who competes in artistic gymnastics at the P-2 (Provincial Level 2) level, soon to be P-3 level, along with trampoline and tumbling, took top spot in Provincial "C" tumbling at last year's Western Canada Cup.

She competed two levels above her age division.

"It's only open to provincial stream kids," Flip City head coach Rusty Pierce said, regarding the format of the Western Canada Cup in Port Coquitlam. "It was her [Maya's] first year of competition and all year she competed in the 10-and-under category which was a reduced difficulty level for trampoline and mini."

But that level wasn't available at the PoCo meet, meaning Maya had to move up in class.

As a result, she competed against athletes as old as 16.

On top of her time at Flip City, Maya is also a dedicated dancer at Affinity Dance, performing group and solo jazz, and she takes classes in ballet and AcroDance (acrobatic dance).

This coming February, Maya is set to compete in solo dance, doing a three-minute routine in front of judges.

"She will combine what she knows from gymnastics, plus with the jazz dancing, into a dance routine," Mike explained.

Mike said a time will come when his youngest daughter - a Grade 4 student at James Kennedy Elementary - will have to choose between gymnastics and dance.

"I don't know what that time is," Mike said.

For now, Maya is managing to juggle her two passions.

Pierce, for one, believes Maya has the potential to go far in the world of gymnastics and trampoline and tumbling.

"She's training a lot in artistic gymnastics and trains a little bit in trampoline, but gymnasts can do anything," Pierce said. "For her to prepare for the tumbling competition, it took her 20 minutes [total] and she was ready to compete."

Pierce said artistic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and dance are complementing each other nicely, making Maya a more well-rounded athlete.

She's also helped by a built-in support system, Pierce said: "The parents are running here and there and back and forth. They are here six times a week because her older sister is doing trampoline and tumbling on different days than when Maya's here, so she's got the support of her family, she's got the support of her coaches, and she likes it - she's generally got a smile on her face."

The family's marriage to gymnastics and trampoline and tumbling began with the purchase of a 14-foot trampoline.

"I wanted both of my girls to be confident on it so they wouldn't hurt themselves," Mike explained.

Maya and Sunita started out taking a recreational classes at Flip City.

Pierce saw potential in Maya and persuaded her parents to put her into artistic gymnastics, which included training on bars, vault, floor, and beam.

As for the "evil little munchkin" moniker: Maya came up with that herself.

"She has told me to call her 'evil little munchkin,'" Pierce said.

So what makes her an "evil little munchkin?"

"I'm evil to my sister and I'm a little munchkin," Maya explained.

"And she's got the 'evil little munchkin' laugh, too," Pierce chimed in.

. . .

Sunita is as versatile as her kid sister.

A pitcher with the Abbotsford Outlaws rep A team, she is preparing for the upcoming softball season. She has a long-term goal of one day earning a softball scholarship with an NCAA school.

sports@langleyadvance.com