An Exciting and Disappointing Meet Seven: Utah State Championships

Making decisions is one of the hardest things for me to do. Last week, I had to make one of the hardest decisions that I have ever had to make, and of course it was a decision about gymnastics. Last weekend was Utah State Championships, and I had to choose whether or not I was going to compete.

My ankle was finally feeling better last week. I was pumped, because that meant I was able to train hard for state! But, on Monday, I was working my mount on bars and my back started hurting me a lot. A few of my teammates like Sam have had back problems, and I know how long they can take to heal. However, I have had muscle spasms in my back before and that’s what it felt like. I knew I just needed to rest.

Long story short, I tried working out the next day and my back was still hurting me. My coach said that I needed to decide wether or not to compete at state. We had a long discussion in which she told me that it was okay if I didn’t compete because I had gotten a high enough all around to be able to petition into Regionals.

This was a very hard decision for me to make because I really wanted to compete. After discussing this with my parents and other coaches, I decided that it was best if I didn’t compete. I was heartbroken, but I knew it was for the best.

Even though I didn’t compete, I still went to watch my teammates! They all did amazing. This was the best meet of the season for everyone, and everybody qualified for Regionals! They are in Phoenix, Arizona this year, hosted by Arizona Sunrays Gymnastics. 

This is the first year that there is Regionals for Level Sevens, and my teammate Elise was worried about qualifying. But, Elise qualified with flying colors! She even made the state team, which means that she is representing Utah at Regionals!

My whole team with the fifth place banner after everyone had competed!
Photo Courtesy Of: Amanda Johanson 

Yesterday, my coach got the message that they accepted my petition, so I will be joining my team in Phoenix! I can't wait to wrap up a good season with the rest of my team!

This is the Region 1 logo.
Photo Courtesy Of: Arizona Sunrays Gymnastics

The Ute Meet

One thing that all gymnasts enjoy is watching college gymnastics meets. Last weekend, the University of Utah gymnastics team had a meet against the University of Florida, and my gym was invited to flash the scores. However, you cannot do scores when you fourteen or older, so I was not able to do scores with my teammates.

The Utah Gymnastics Team!
Photo Courtesy of: USA Gymnastics

The Gator gymnastics team!
Photo Courtesy Of: Gatorzone

Even so, I went to go watch the meet with my friend Emma. I had a small conundrum, though. I couldn’t figure out what colors to wear and what team to cheer for! I am a huge fan of the Gators, and my dream is to be a gymnast for them when I go to college. Also, I love the Utes, and I support them with all my heart. I made a compromise and cheered for both, and had a creative color scheme to fit both teams!

Emma and I at the meet!

This meet was the last meet of the regular season for both teams, and senior night for the Utes. Since they don’t have any seniors on their team, they brought in former Ute gymnasts. One of them, Annie DiLuzio, is my sport psych teacher!

Both the Utes and the Gators are very good. Going into the meet, the Utes were ranked 7th and the Gators were ranked 2nd. The Gators are helped out a lot by a freshman, Bridget Sloan, who was on the 2008 US Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Team! It was so cool to get to watch her perform live!

This is the 2008 Olympic team. Bridget Sloan is the one on the far left.
Photo Courtesy Of: USA Gymnastics

Another highlight of the night was watching Georgia Dabritz on bars. One note: she does not use grips. Grips help gymnasts to hold on to the bar, and they eliminates some of the friction on your hands. Most gymnasts find that bars is easier to do with grips, but not Georgia Dabritz. She got a 10.0, a PERFECT SCORE, on bars, without using grips! It was amazing to see someone get a 10, and I was so happy for my teammate who got to flash her score!

Georgia Dabritz flashing the U after scoring a 10 on bars!
Photo Courtesy of: University of Utah Athletics

There were other amazing performances on vault and floor by the Utes, and the Gators were amazing, too, especially on beam. At the end of the meet, there was so much apprehension on who was going to win because it was a very close meet all the way. The Utes ended up winning, and I was really happy! The final score was 198.125-197.875. 

After the meet, my teammates took some pictures! Here is one:

My teammate Monkey flashing a score, and my crazy teammates after the meet!
Photo Courtesy Of: Morgan Cutt

I am always inspired by college gymnastics meets, and I hope to be inspiring some other young gymnast someday!

Meet Six: GTC (The Meet That Wasn't)

We are now only a few weeks away from state meet, which means training gets a lot more intense. A LOT more! Now we get to the point of fixing the littlest details, and while I was doing this on floor, the unthinkable happened.

I was doing my leap pass on floor (a switch leap, switch side, straddle jump) when I landed wrong and rolled my ankle. At first, I didn’t think it was that bad. I stretched it out, walked away to go get ibuprofen, and walked all the way upstairs and back to get tape for my coach to tape me up. It didn’t hurt very much, but my coach noticed that it had swollen up. A lot.

She sent me home, which was devastating. I had a meet the next day and I was missing my last day of workout before it! I knew it was a good thing, though, because I didn’t want to risk hurting it any more, making it so I wouldn’t be able to compete at state.

It hurt more after I left gym. My dad, who is a doctor, and my cousin, who is a sports trainer, checked it out. They both agreed that I had a sprain, but they both said that if it wasn’t bothering me much in the morning and if I taped it up really well, I could try to compete at least one event at the meet the next day. However, my mom talked to my coach and she said that this was a bad idea. She thought it would be better for me to just take some time off to make sure that it healed properly. 

I still decided to go watch my teammates compete, though. It was a good thing, too, because they all did really well! As a team, it was definitely one of the best meets this season! Two people won the all around in their age groups, and everyone placed on at least three things! I was really proud of everyone, and it made me realize just how much fun competing is and just how much I missed it. This meet was hosted by Gymnastics Training Center, and I have some good friends on their team that I would have been competing with. Even though I didn't get to see them, I had accepted that not competing was the best thing for me.

My wonderful team after they competed!

After the meet, Taelor, Monkey, Elise, my friend Breanna, and I all went out to eat at Bucca di Beppo. We were all starving and it was a good thing because none of us realized how HUGE the portions are there!

Monkey posing in front of a statue at the restaurant!

Monkey and Elise with another statue outside!

Four days later, my ankle doesn’t hurt much at all. I can walk perfectly normally without it hurting, and today my parents let me go back to gym. I did bars, and nothing, including dismounting, hurt it! Tomorrow, I hope to at least add beam, if not everything, but I will definitely be doing everything by the end of the week.

Even with this little bump in the road, I feel like I am prepared for state. I am confident in what I can do, and I feel that having had this injury will give me more confidence because I know that I can get through anything! 

Meet Five: Boise

The last away meet of the season has come and gone. This meet was in Boise, Idaho, hosted by the Boise State University women’s gymnastics team. Even though we didn’t go somewhere really cool like New Orleans or New York, this meet was still lots of fun!

As a team, this wasn’t our best meet of the season, especially on bars. There were only a few people who did really well on bars, and sadly, one of those wasn’t me. I did okay, but nothing like last week at Winter Classic.

Beam was decent, but again, not as good as it has been. About half the team fell, and the rest of the people looked unconfident during their routines. However, considering how we did on bars, we did pretty well changing our attitudes to make a good rebound from our bad start.

Floor was by far our best event! Everybody scored at least a 9.05 or higher! There is also a funny story that goes along with this. My coach Charity’s birthday is coming up soon, and we celebrate from March 1st up until her birthday. This year, we decided to give her a gift every day. We asked her what we wanted in the wait time between beam and floor, and she said that she wanted everyone to get a nine on floor! We gave her her birthday present!!!!

Vault was good, too. I scored the same as I did at Winter Classic, a 9.25. Everyone made great progress from the vaults that they competed last week, and it was a great finish to the meet!

At this meet, we did almost everything as a team. I only did one thing without my teammates – I went to the Capitol building. It was a beautiful building, and it was really interesting to see how their government compares to ours in Utah.

A collage of some of the pictures I took at the capitol.

Friday night we had a team dinner at Bardenays, a bar and grill kind of place. The food there was amazing, the best place I’ve been in a while! Plus, this dinner was really fun because I got to spend time with my teammates. They had all driven to Boise, and they all had lots of energy! We were all really hyper and we had a great time hanging out and laughing!

Monkey, Amanda, and I at the team dinner!

After the meet on Saturday, we decided to have a pool party at the hotel pool. We ordered lots and lots of pizza and hung out in the pool. It is really fun to swim with my team because we love to try and do gymnastics in the water. It is amazing how much harder it is......

I am sad that we are done traveling for this season. However, if I qualify to Regionals, the adventure will continue there in April! Even with a poor start to this meet, we ended up doing well. I also bonded a lot with my teammates, and had lots and lots and lots of fun! Our next meet is in Salt Lake, and a few of my friends are going to watch. I can’t wait to show them what I can do!