The Tennessee Academy of Gymnastics is hosting the girls’ optionals state meet this Friday through Sunday at the Chattanooga Convention Center.

Two weeks ago at the Wimbleton center in Memphis, TAG won 14 gold medals in the boys’ state meet — plus the fourth team championship trophy in as many years for the trio of Eli Gober, Ryan Smith and Adam Gebelein. They’re going to the regional meet in Miami next week.

In Level 8, Gober took gold in floor exercise and silver in rings, vault, pommel horse and parallel bars in the 14-plus age group, and Smith and Gebelein combined for gold or silver in all six events for ages 12-13. Smith, a Baylor sixth-grader, won in rings and pommel horse and was second in parallel bars and high bar, while Heritage Middle eighth-grader Gebelein was second in floor and vault.

Trey Hill, a home-schooled student who turned 16 Monday, was a Level 10 state champion for TAG in vault. He was a teammate of the Level 8 trio when they won their first state title together three years ago in Level 5.

“There was one (Knoxville) team with like 25 guys that year, and we won by like two points,” said Gober, a 14-year-old Silverdale Baptist Academy freshman. “We had to count all of our scores.”

TAG owner-coach Larry Denham called that “a huge benchmark to get by then, and we haven’t looked back with these guys.”

While the older Hill accelerated his development, Gober, Gebelein and Smith were in the group that won the Level 6 state title in 2007. They continued their streak in Level 7 last year and basically had a walkover this year in Level 8, which Denham acknowledged some clubs have been slow to embrace for competition.

“Level 8 is just starting to be seen as a really good development level between the compulsory levels and the higher optional levels,” he said. “We’re just a little faster to be developing routines for it.”

That allowed Denham to hold his Level 8 guys out of some events that might aggravate injuries, and they held back a little in routines they’ll try at the regional meet in Miami next week.

TAG’s Sumner Smith won the Level 7 gold medals for ages 7-9 in pommel horse and rings in Memphis and was second in parallel bars to teammate Justin Wheeler, who also won in vault. Allan Dunlay was the 10-11 state rings champion in Level 6, where Drako Wise won age 7-9 golds in pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, high bar and all-around and took silver in vault.

“He’s a phenom,” Denham said of Wise, a Henry L. Barger Elementary student.

College scholarships are far less available for male gymnasts than for girls, and the TAG boys said generally they have stayed in the sport for other reasons. The Level 8 champs agreed they like being able to do things physically that others can’t do.

“It’s just fun — and exciting” said Gober, who is thinking about trying wrestling.

Specifically, the fun is in “the challenges,” Smith said. “And the satisfaction,” Gebelein added.

“I guess the thing that sets guys apart,” Denham said, “is enjoying the process, not so much the trophies and awards.”