Canada's Greg Roe, a national trampolining title winner in his country, has been hosting the games around the world for more than a year. He was impressed with Libby.
"She showed wonderful courage, was humbled and having only become a tramper months earlier when she submitted her entry wasn't confident she would get in.
"Maci got in completely on her own skills and merit. She must be congratulated on becoming the first female competitor and no one will ever be able to take that global title away," Roe said.
One of 44 competitors at the event from throughout Australia and New Zealand, Libby, wasn't told where she finished on the overall rankings as only the top three finishers were announced.
"There were judges there from the United States who told me I should be really proud of myself and hopefully I have been inspired to encourage more females to join the sport," Bibby said.
"That's my aim now ... to make freestyle trampolining more known."
Like so many Kiwi youngsters, Libby has had a trampoline in her backyard for a while.
"When I managed a back flip that's when I realised I could do more in trampolining," Libby said.
She had six months of coaching from Wayne Marsh at the Waipukurau-based Ricochet Trampoline Club.
Marsh founded the club 26 years ago and has coached numerous New Zealand representatives to world championship level.
For the past five months Libby has been coached by Cameron Barnes and Zirk Engelbrecht at Flip Out Hawke's Bay in Hastings.
She has sessions with them twice a week and every other day of the week can be found on her trampoline in the backyard of her family's Waipawa home.
"I used to play football and tennis but trampolining is the No 1 sport now. I would like to coach others in the future," Libby, who intends to study design when she leaves school, said.
"I've got to thank Zirk and Cameron for training me for the GTgames and also for sponsoring my journey to the games."
The Garden Trampoline Games were created by Skybound USA and presented by Roe. It is the world's first official freestyle backyard trampoline competition.
Each year the world's best Gtramp athletes are invited to compete for one of the top 50 spots at the various legs.
The annual gathering at the various legs is intended to help raise awareness of the emerging sport of freestyle trampoline, improve safety and training standards and inspire a new generation of trampoline athletes around the world.
Roe pointed out many of the competitors and judges in Auckland met for the first time after being long-time social media friends.
"Observing the supreme sportsmanship on display was the reminder why all the sponsors do what they do to support these kids. I doubt anyone watching not associated would have realised there was a competition going on while each competitor was cheering each other on so genuinely in the name of seeing this sport of Gtramp progressing and seeing what is possible rather than focusing on their own chance of a win."
Takapuna Beach will host the next New Zealand edition of the GTgames in January next year.
