Park’s gymnastics team triumphed over St. Anthony Village 129.8 to 119.15 Jan. 23. Assistant coach Kiri Palmquist said a good part of the meet was how the team got to perform new skills.
“I think the meet went amazing, we saw a lot of sticks on beams today, which is pretty awesome,” Palmquist said. “We also saw a lot of new skills that came out in this meet today, and had a lot of great performances today. A highlight of this meet was how a lot of girls stuck new skills.”
Sophomore captain Sophie Miller said this meet has been one of the top meets so far.
“I think we had one of our best meets. We scored well,” Miller said. “We got 129.8 points, which is really good for us because our season high this year was 127 until this meet when we got to 129. Going up a whole two points on our season high is a really big jump.”
Sophomore captain Elsa Crow said the team could work on the tiny details.
“We could improve on some finishing touches for our routines as well as cleaning them up a little more,” Crow said. “We use the practice before meet day strictly for routines and cleaning up everything. This benefits us because then we are sharp and ready to go for the next day.”
Palmquist said the goal going into this meet was to enjoy it, knowing that some girls were anxious.
“We just wanted to have fun at this meet,” Palmquist said. “I know that a lot of girls were nervous, but we told them not to rush things, have fun and be excited.”
Crow said she goes into meets with a positive attitude and sticks to it.
“I personally used a strategy that is a little bit different. It’s a mindset, so if I fall or mess up, I think to myself, ‘it’s going to be okay,’” Crow said. “It went super well for me, I stuck with it in almost every single event.”
According to Miller, the highlight of the meet was the total number of beam sticks.
“Our high would definitely be beam sticks because we had four out of five people stick on varsity, and I think on JV we had about two or three out of five people stick,” Miller said. “I feel that everyone did really well at this meet.”
According to Palmquist, the team really developed their skills throughout the season.
“The team definitely improved a lot throughout the season,” Palmquist said. “A lot of drills during practice have been helping the endurance aspect and the ability to do new skills.”
The next gymnastics meet is an invitational against Two Rivers at 11 a.m. on Jan. 27 at Two Rivers High School.
