The New Trier Gymnastics season finished on Friday, Jan. 30, as they place second at the conference meet and enter Thursday’s regionals meet as the number one seed.
Although New Trier ended their conference meet in second place, they are still tied for first in the overall conference rankings. Glenbrook South (GBS) took first place, only scoring three points more than New Trier. Maine South, Niles West, and Evanston placed behind the Trevians, respectively.
Junior Emma Hermanson commented on the team’s obstacles.
“Sam Stoddart, one of our top varsity gymnasts, was out sick and couldn’t compete,” she said. “It was a huge setback but it only made us try harder.”
Considering the unfortunate absence of Stoddart, the team’s competitiveness after her recovery will surely improve their chances. The team is looking for more of the success they experienced earlier in the season.
“We recently had a dual meet at GBS and we won on all three levels,” explained junior Sophie Chevalier.
Overall, New Trier has reached consistent success throughout their season, while only suffering one dual meet loss against Carmel High School (CHS).
The loss occurred on Jan. 27, and New Trier fell just short by a final score of 144.20-143.50 in team points. A loss by that small of a margin is unlikely to repeat itself later on, and New Trier will have a shot at redemption in the upcoming sectional meet.
“We’ve been working hard and I think we have a good shot at going far in the state series,” said junior Taylor Kwok.”
Both CHS and GBS are in New Trier’s sectional, but luckily, neither are in its regional. This will give New Trier an extra week to prepare for further competition against their rivals.
“For regionals, hopefully Sam will be back and ready to go,” added Hermanson.“We’re gonna try our best.”
Regarding the teams upcoming competition, junior Peyton Burns commented, “New Trier Gymnastics is a strong team and our biggest competition in the conference is GBS. They have a very talented team. Our last [dual] meet against them we won and were very excited, but they have also beat us in the past.”
This back-and-forth rivalry between the two teams could be settled at the sectional meet, next week.
New Trier has placed in or won most of the tournaments throughout the gymnastics season.
“Our biggest competition of the year is the varsity Holiday Invite which happened over winter break,” added Kwok. “We did really well as a team, so hopefully we can do the same in the upcoming meets.”
For a sport whose athletes spend half of the time off the ground, injuries seem inevitable. Burns has experienced this firsthand in her recovery from a broken foot.
“I have been working on floor in practice and hope to compete it in the upcoming meets such as regionals and sectionals, she said”
Junior Jaclyn Brownstone, who has been recovering from an ACL injury, said, “Injuries are pretty common, half of us usually spend about 20 minutes to get taped up before we can actually practice, but injuries like mine are more rare.”
These precautions become more intense as they practice more advanced skills. Brownstone added that the harder skills usually come with a higher risk for injury.
If New Trier wins the regional meet, they would advance to compete at the sectional meet on Feb. 9 at Mundelein High School (MHS). If they win at MHS, then they will qualify for state for the fourth consecutive year.
In they mean time, they train.
“Although in gymnastics everyone competes individually, we all practice together, work together and support each other like any other team sport,” said Chevalier. “There’s only thirty-two girls on the team so we all have strong bonds with each other.”