Gymnastics celebrates senior night

Team loses to Breck 129 to 132

Alex Balfour and Hannah Leff

Striving to create a memorable senior night, junior gymnastics captain Savannah Romero said the team made heartfelt gifts for their senior teammates.

“We had all the girls pitch in some money so we could get them a gift. We all wrote little notes and put them in jars for the seniors,” Romero said. “The team really helped with letting the seniors leave with something good to remember the team by.”

According assistant gymnastics coach Whitney Koliha, senior co-captains Anna duSaire and Annika Eldridge and senior team manager Amanda Weinberg were recognized at their meet Feb. 1 against Breck.

Kohila said despite losing to Breck 129 to 132, she felt proud of the team’s performance at their last home meet of the year.

“Overall, our girls really showed up. They had a great last meet at home, and with it being senior night, the seniors really shined,” Kohila said.

Senior Anna duSaire said while the team struggled on beam, she was proud of her individual performance and receiving a 9 on beam.

“Everyone did pretty well on their events. Beam was a little rough for a lot of the girls. It went well for me though. I got a 9 and I won beam,” duSaire said. 

Romero said she enjoyed seeing the two seniors perform their floor routine again after a few weeks of not participating in the event.

“Iit was really good because we had our two seniors come out for floor finally. They had been off of floor for the past couple weeks because they had not had their routines nailed,” Romero said.

Kohila said the seniors’ work ethics and leadership skills have greatly benefited the team.

“It’s always fun working with the seniors, especially when they take on the role of being captains. They showed that leadership quality and they are really good at motivating the rest of the team,” Kohila said. “They worked really hard and shared their work ethic with the rest of the team. We’re going to miss our seniors a lot.”

duSaire said she has enjoyed the loving atmosphere on the team and will miss competing with her teammates.

“I love the gymnastics team. It’s always a really good, positive environment. We are a really close-knit team. I’ve had so much fun with them and I love all the girls on the team,” DuSaire said. “I’m going to miss them all so much.”

Romero said the team’s upcoming, rescheduled meet against Bloomington Jefferson will help them get into a competitive mindset for their Sections meet.

“It’s going to help having one more competition before Sections, instead of just having two weeks off, so we’ll still be in the flow of it,” Romero said. “For the first few days of next week, we will some skill days to up our game for the meet. Then the following week, we will have some more skill days to up our routines for sections”

The team’s next meet will be 6 p.m. Feb. 9  against Bloomington Jefferson and Richfield at Bloomington Jefferson High School. Sections will take place 12 p.m. Feb. 17 at Minnetonka High School.