The Ladies kick off the regular season this weekend at UIC. There will be no Live Video, but Live Sats can be found by clicking here.
What's good Centenary Gymnastics Fans?! It's your favorite sarcastic senior (Tavia Smith) with this edition of gym talk. So much has happened since our last chit chat. We finished finals, went home for the holidays, promptly returned for a week of bootcamp, had a New Year's Eve Party, started classes again, and had our final intrasquad in the Gold Dome before season starts. If you're overwhelmed by all the things… same �� But I'm looking forward to one final semester with my Ladies.
After Christmas, we got to come back to campus before the rest of the other students, so we could solely focus on our training and putting the finishing touches on our routines before we head to Chicago for our first competition January 13. Your Ladies have been working hard and pushing themselves to better their consistency. We were even blessed with a Sunday service 2-a-day. It was so fun to be back in the gym with my girls. It's so much better than when I have to workout all alone over break. We got the privilege to set up the Gold Dome so we could practice in a meet setting! We set up our brand-new floor for the first time. The floor roars were really sky rocketing their passes.
New Year's Eve, we had our annual Lake Shack party to bring in 2019 in style. We played tons of games and made dinner together. We made fools of ourselves scrunching our faces to move an Oreo from our forehead to our mouths without using our hands. And shout out to Sierra Ponder for shaking those bells. We made our own personalized bracelets and exchanged gifts with one another as well. The best gift given had to have been the half-consumed water bottle… good job Cami. Public disclaimer: that wasn't the actual gift. We don't know how it got there. It was funny, nonetheless. At the end of the night, we enjoyed fireworks snuggled up next to the "fire." And by "fire" I mean the single log that kind of lit but was barely smoking because the rain in Louisiana really didn't want us to have a bonfire. Every time a firework shot off into the air, I would scream and lean back on Si-Si like she could save me. Apparently, me and loud noises don't get along? We capped the night off by watching the ball drop together (in New York and New Orleans) before heading to bed.
On Monday, we started our first day of the Spring semester off by having an intrasquad in the Gold Dome. Thanks to Lauren (Carlton) Hawkins, Coach Caroline Carlton, and Coach Emlyn Aubrey for being our celebrity judges! I was so proud of how my Ladies came out and took care of business. Senior Navia Jordan picked up right where she left off last season with beautiful routines on beam and floor. Shout outs to Cami Bea Austin for her beautiful straddle back to HANDSTAND, Liz Sander for her first competition routines in the Dome since surgery, and Si-Si Ponder for her beam debut (WOWOWOWWOW BEAM QUEEN). It felt really good to be back in the Dome competing in front of a crowd. Thanks to everyone who came out! Even greater thanks to those real enough to miss the part of the Alabama vs. Clemson game to help us tear down the gym! Y'all are life savers for real! This intrasquad really has me excited for the things in store this season. Can't wait to level it on up Ladies! Stay tuned for highlights from ya girl's last first meet! (I'm not crying. You're crying) See ya on Sunday at University of Illinois-Chicago! Until next time my friends…
Xoxo
TT
