I keep watching the 1st place runs for this zone and they get 1 second faster than me and I cannot figure out where that 1 second is coming from... If someone could give me advice it would be much appreciated!

It may be difficult to help since I haven't posted any runs but I have plans to fix that.

Are you in the Discord? people will discuss it on #sonic-1 channel there, for sure. Generally, it'll be to do with doing 3 loop jumps as opposed to 2. (watch the vids' loops frame by frame on youtube (with < > keys))

Like Pho said, 3 jump loops are the way to go for 0:24, along with optimised play: The fastest 0:24 I've seen using regular strats is only 0:24 by 5 frames. I'd personally suggest joining the Discord server as it's more active, and try to get a video so we can give you a hand.