Upcoming gymnastics seasons looks strong
January 4, 2017
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.”
Ellie Speedling • Feb 13, 2017 at 9:41 am
The nut graph was really strong and I enjoyed the quotes given. I thought that the background on the team made this article very interesting to read and the photos were really well taken! Overall, a really great article!
Megan Karnuth • Feb 10, 2017 at 9:47 am
Great job Ryan. I am impressed with your interviewing skills because you have some really strong quotes. I also like how you start by building off the team’s previous experience the year before and then going into their hopes for this year.
Elana Ross • Feb 9, 2017 at 10:03 pm
I thought this article was very strong! I agree with what the other’s said about your nut graph, I thought it was very well written. I enjoyed how you gave background on the teams season last year and also talked about what to expect at a gymnastics meet. The quotes were also very strong, the whole article flows very nicely together.
Sophie Begin • Feb 9, 2017 at 11:28 am
I liked this articles because I thought the nut graph was very strong. It gave the perfect amount of background knowledge. I thought that the article was filled with a lot of good information about the team. The way that the information was written from the past to the present was pleasing to read. The quotes flowed nicely with the information and was overall very well written.
Ebbie Benson • Jan 17, 2017 at 11:42 pm
The nut graph was strong and gave all the information needed to understand the following article. Well organized, it is sort of a timeline for the season, and where the team hopes it goes which flowed nicely. The quotes show how determined the team is to improve.
McKenna Wohlers • Jan 17, 2017 at 8:18 pm
This article was very interesting. You had great flow with the facts and the quotes. Your quotes were very strong. Also, I am glad you gave some background information on the sport and how they did last year because it helped make the article even better. I choose this article because I wanted to learn and read about the gymnastic team at our school! The pictures drew me in as well. They were very good quality photos! Great article!