Upcoming gymnastics seasons looks strong

Ryan Berg, SNO Social Media Editor

 Gymnastics is one of the most physically demanding sports.  Exercises require strength, endurance, flexibility and agility, and use of muscle groups that include arms, legs, shoulders, chest, back and core.

The Stillwater gymnastics team is looking forward to another good season this year.  The captains are seniors Haley Tholen, Annie Seiler and junior Danielle Keran.  Girls from each team will participate in different events like  vault, bars, balance beam or floor and get a score out of ten.  The top four scores for each team from each event are kept and go towards the final team score.  At the end of the meet, the team with the highest score wins the meet.

Last year, the girls had a disappointing end to the season, with only one individual person going to state, and not the team as a whole.  They have been working hard all offseason with the ultimate goal to get the team to state this year.  With high expectations, it is bound to be a good year.

“We are motivated to do our best and get to state, especially after not making it last season”, Keran said. “My expectations are that this team is one of the best in a while, and we are going to do well.”

The girls have been really excited for the first meet, and they have been waiting for a while.  The wait is over on Dec 15.   So far, it has just been practice for the girls and they are ready to put it all to use.  They had a mock meet on Dec. 15.  A mock meet is like a regular meet.  A judge comes in and scores all the girls, but they were not competing against anyone: it was simply see how they are doing.

“It went really well and we were really surprised about our scores,” Keran said, “and we got a lot of helpful tips from the judge.”

The first of many opponents was Cretin-Derham Hall.  The meet took place in the SAHS gymnasium, where a JV and varsity meet occured.  The team defeated the Raiders by a score of 139.225 to 79.3, having a strong all around performance.  Even though it was not the toughest competition, the Ponies really showed off what they are all about.  The few mistakes that were made have given the girls things to work on for the next meet.

“I think everyone was really excited to be able to put the hard practices we’ve had into action and show off the new skills everyone has got over the summer and spring and at the same time, the first meet is always nerve racking because it’s been almost a year since the last one,” Seiler said. “For a first meet, it went really well. We have a really strong varsity and JV line up this year, so to start off the season we had a really great score and even with some falls on each event, everyone performed really well.”

The stage is set for a very exciting season.  With all eyes on them, the girls are ready to perform to their highest potential. Seiler said, “We have the capability to go to state, but we just have to put in 100 percent. Because every single tenth counts, especially at sections,so if we can make everything consistent and clean in every  practice and meet, we will have a much larger chance of going to state this year.”