As sophomore Savannah Romero practices for Sections after recovering from a foot injury, she reflects on both her own and her team’s improvement with their existing record of 2-4.

“This year, personally, (Sections) is going to be hard coming back from an injury, but I have gotten some new skills this year, so I think I will do better than last year,” Romero said. “As a team I think we will definitely overall have improved so much from last year, so I think we are going to go way up in Sections. With where we are at, I think we can do really well.”

Romero said the week before Sections, gymnasts work to clean up routines.

“Since we have a week before the meet, we do three or four days of skills,” Romero said. “The last couple days of the week we put (the skills) in our routines and spend those days consistently perfecting the routines.”

Head coach Gretchen Novak said the other teams in the Section are skilled and provide a challenge for the team. She said the team’s goal is for each gymnast to set personal records.

“We have a lot of very high-leveled gymnastic teams in our Section, so our goal is usually to get our season best, and really do our best,” Novak said. “It would be great if we would get any State qualifiers, but our main goal is to get out best that we can be.”

According to junior Annika Eldridge, the atmosphere at Sections creates excitement, but also intimidation.

“It is kind of fun but it is scary because there is a lot of things happening. There is a huge crowd,” Eldridge said.

According to Novak, the team’s mentality will play a significant role in preparing them for Sections.

“I think (the gymnasts) will definitely be ready (for Sections) both mentally and physically,” Novak said. “Everybody works really well together and there’s a lot of effort in practice which is appreciated as a coach.”

Gymnastics Sections takes place noon Feb. 18 at Eden Prairie High School.