The gymnastics team recently had their first meet on August 22 against Elizabeth, a four-year number one 4A ranking title holder until our gymnastics team pushed them down to fourth overall. Starting strong, Heiti Pahl led with beam. “Heiti stayed tight and pushed through,” Ella Cunningham, a member of Junior Varsity stated.
Unfortunately, they had a total of eleven falls throughout. “Once someone starts falling it kind of psychs everyone else out,” Gwyn Davis explained. Once the team moved onto bars they were feeling confident.
Avery Hull set a strong start with a flawless routine without any falls. As the day progressed, they supported and motivated each other to the best of their abilities while competing on the floor. “I think the floor is our strongest event by far, and we’re stepping up our skills high, so I think we scored the highest on the floor as well, ” Paige Ehresman explained. However, it is worth noting that their floor was not a typical spring floor but a basketball court.
Finally, they finished on the vault. Starting their final event was Christa Snyder. “Everyone who went first did well,” Gwyn Davis claimed. Unfortunately, their attempt did not go as planned because the vault at Elizabeth was too stiff. As a result, they were unable to successfully execute the block and fell several times. “Our coaches were super excited and super proud,” told Ella Cunningham. As awards drew close their confidence level increased drastically. They were on the podium a lot in that competition for both JV and varsity.
According to Paige Ehresman, Emma Doyle got first on almost everything, which raised their spirits through the roof, and the entire team was super excited for her. They left their mark scoring eleven points higher than Elizabeth, with Elizabeth still in second place. Even with this exciting win, there is always room for corrections, “we need to improve scores but I think we did well for our first meet.” Ella Cunningham continues, “I think we are on the right track to states.”
This year the team has six graduating seniors. A few sentiments were shared by Sydney Cowan, “it’s really sad. I love high school. I love the team, and the girls are great, but I think I’m ready to move on.”