The 2019 Gymnastics Senior Class Provides Their Final Gym Talk
Dear Jackie;
It has been a pleasure to compete for you for four years. None of us would be the women we are today without you. With that said, this a letter of formal resignation. We have given our heart and soul, and body to this program for four years. It breaks our hearts to say this, but it is time for us to go. We hereby as of this moment, resign. It's unfortunate, but this means we will not be able to help with tear down. Thanks for the mems.
With all our love
The senioritas
Tehe, just kidding! (Except we really did try to give this to Coach Jackie to avoid putting up the equipment after MIC's. Surprise, she didn't accept it) So, even though most of us have completed our gymnastics careers (cue the ugly tears), I'm Liz Sander, and myself and my five senior sisters are here with this week's gym talk. I'm not calling it our last gym talk, because according to the calendar we write another one in two weeks, or not, we'll see. So, stay tuned.
First, I'm going to recap the last weekend, and then the six of us are going to share our favorite mems from the year. This week, we wrapped up our season (at least as a team) at MIC conference championships, which we hosted in the Gold Dome! The night before the meet we had definitely the best conference banquet I've ever attended, which was held at the Mardi Gras Museum. The banquet was so fun, and in such a unique location. Thanks to Coach Jackie and all the parents who helped to make the night such a special experience. We finished fifth at conference, beating an NCAA Division I school, so that was a pretty sweet way to end the season! We also had a season high team floor score, where both myself and sophomore Jerrica Harris earned career highs! Unfortunately, in the middle of our floor rotation, Senior Tavia Smith injured her knee, but she showed incredible poise and strength and was our biggest cheerleader for the rest of the meet. Please be sending lots of healthy happy thoughts and prayers her way! We missed T on the other three events, but shout out to the vault shakers for hitting five vaults, senior Natalie Scates for filling in in the bar lineup, and for freshman Xian Baumgartner for stepping up in a big way scoring a career high of 9.7 on beam! Senior Navia Jordan earned All-Conference honors for beam and floor, and Junior Cami Bea Austin on vault. We ended the meet by honoring the UIC Flames gymnastics team, who's program is being dropped at the end of the year. This is a big loss for our conference and the gymnastics community, and we are all still hoping the UIC administration will #flipthedecision. We ended the weekend with the exciting news that Tavia (AA), Navia (Floor, Beam), Cami (Vault, Beam, Floor), Kendall Sanders (AA), and Xian (Bars) all qualified to nationals! Congrats Ladies, we are so proud of you!
Now that I've caught you up on the weekend, here are some of our favorite memories from our last season competing as Centenary Ladies. I'm sharing these memories mostly as my friends told me, but some of them needed some sort of explanation so I helped out when needed. (my commentary can be found in the parentheticals)
Spin: Spinny's favorite moment from this season has to be when we hit 192 at Rutgers! It was so much excitement, so much energy, so much happiness happening in one night and this what our team deserved! Beautiful gymnastics and the fight that continued on through the meet made my heart happy and the "Level Up" was definitely in motion! This team defeated the odds, showed what they are capable of, and decided to never quit! This team made my senior year unforgettable:)
Navi J: I can't pick one, so my first favorite memory from this season is when our whole team learned to be majorettes before one of our home meets. (the opposing team thought we were warming up, so we accidentally started warm-ups early). My second favorite memory was at the first meet, when we had a music malfunction and Jenny ended up doing her floor routine to Aspen's music. (And absolutely killed it.)
Nat: My favorite memory from this year is when we dressed up as the characters in our floor routines, and I got to do a routine as a fairy princess (complete with confetti and a tiara). Additionally, I enjoyed getting to eat fried food at the conference banquet (aka beignets, because when in Louisiana…), and competing with Mackenzie's boyfriend Jared. (peep the insta.)
T: My favorite memory from this year is getting four season highs on senior night (a night where the six of us also marched out in slippers and blankets, because who's dome? OUR DOME), and in general having the best season the team has had in the four year's we've been here. I also really enjoyed traveling with my girls, and making my SEC network debut.
Liz: My sweetest memory from this year, and maybe from all four years, is this year's pink meet. For the first time in four years all six members of the senior class competed in the same meet, and it was just incredible to see all of our hard work cumulate into some great routines. I just love getting to flip with my friends.
Mack: my favorite memory is also all six of us getting to compete in the same meet, but I also really enjoyed getting to recreate pictures in Philly that we originally took our freshman year. I'm also going to steal the show and say that my favorite part of this season was ending my 19-year gymnastics career with this tight knit team that is truly a family, and having the best season Centenary Gymnastics has had in years. (yes, that is me again, ugly crying in the background.)
Well Ladies fans, maybe you'll hear from us again in two weeks, or maybe the calendar is wrong. Either way, this is Spinny, Navi J, MackPack, Nat, Lizzy-poo, and TT saying "Thnks fr th Mmrs" (And if you don't get that reference you should check out Fall Out Boy.)
From Alaska to Philadelphia and everything in between, it's been an honor to compete as a Centenary Lady. Don't forget to live Big, love Big, and do it for something Bigger than yourself. And as always, Level up Ladies.
Love always,
2016 Freshies, 2017 S'mores, 2018 Junie Bees and signing off as the 2019 Senorita's
