Tumbling, writing: 6th grader Leisel Maher does it all

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Is there anything Leisel Maher can’t do? If so, no one has informed this 6th grade whiz kid.

Maher just won 1st place in the Floor and Bar competitions, and 1st place in the All-Around for the high-scoring while competing as a Level 7 gymnast at the Wyoming Gymnastics State Meet held in Cheyenne last weekend. Her placement means an invite to represent the State of Wyoming at the Regional Meet in Plano, Texas at the end of April.

Maher is practically a mainstay at Axis Gymnastics. In 2019, the wiry gymnast scored a perfect 10 on her bar routine at state competition in Sheridan. No one from Axis had ever done that before.

And gymnastics is hardly Leisel’s only pursuit. As a 5th-grader at Jackson Hole Classical Academy last year, Maher was one of two winners announced in the 2021 Davey Jackson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) American History Essay contest on the topic of The Boston Massacre, in recognition of the event’s 250th anniversary.

Of course, Maher’s been writing for a while now. At age 6, Leisel penned a short essay about her efforts to help stock cutthroat trout at R Park.

“The fish were caught in nets and moved to a bucket. When the bucket was full (we took it down to the pond’s edge). We would reach in, get a fish and throw it into the pond. They were awfully slimy. Our hands became slimy. You can go fishing on Saturday and you can keep the rod that you were fishing with,” Maher wrote for Live Water Properties in 2017.

Leisel is the daughter of Macye and Alex Maher who, undoubtedly, are just trying to keep up with this kiddo.