Hey Ladies Fans! This is sophomore K2/Knaps with this week's gym talk!
The Ladies had yet another eventful double meet weekend, but this time around, it was in beautiful St. Louis, Missouri. We have two Missouri Natives on our team (Lauryn Stiff and Madison McCary) and it was nice to get to spend some time in their home state to do some gymnastics.
We started off the trip with a day of practice on Thursday. We were able to practice on the equipment at the GymQuarters meet, because all of the equipment was on podiums. This was a great way to get used to the events being up higher than usual and to have time to adjust to the equipment before we competed. We were all super excited about getting to compete on podium for the first time this season.
Friday was the first meet day of the weekend. To start off the meet Freshman Rose Deshler and Sophomore Kendall Knaps (me hehe) sang the National Anthem at the St. Charles Family Arena in front of all the fans and gymnasts. Rose and I did a great job, and were complimented by many people. When I came to Centenary last year I had always been too nervous to sing in front of people, but now that I have gotten over my nerves I love performing!
We started on beam which was our best event of the meet scoring a 48.050. Props to Jerrica Harris for being such a consistent beam lead off and also Dorothy Mims who tied her career-high of a 9.8 and tied for second place. We moved to floor exercise and had some strong routines. The team had a few stumbles but senior Cami Bea Austin pulled through with a beautiful, power packed routine for a 9.8.
After floor we moved over to the Vault. We had 4 twisting vaults which were all made, this is a huge upgrade for us this season and it is fun to see those vault shakers twisting it up! Once again Cami Bea Austin closed the event out nicely scoring a 9.8 and finished with a first place on the night.
Lastly, we went to bars and had some great routines. Shout out to Kendall Huff for stepping in at the last minute and HITTING a fantastic bar routine. The Ladies finished the night with a third-place finish and an overall score of a 189.525. Not what we were hoping for, but we know we can make improvements to bring that score up.
Saturday was fun day for the ladies. We did many different activities throughout the day. Our first stop was to see the St. Louis Gateway Arch. It was mesmerizing how big the Arch was in person. We didn't take the time to go to the top of the Arch, but we got a great team photo in front of it (we all look like cute little penguins in the 13-degree weather haha). After freezing our tails off we made our way over the St. Louis City Museum. This was such a neat place. It was like a huge jungle gym for adults. We climbed through a whales stomach, climbed up and then went down a 10 story slide, climbed onto an airplane wing, took a handstand picture at the top of a castle, watch acrobats in a show, and sat in crazy spin chairs. We climbed through tiny crevices, and got to spend time with some Centenary Alumni, Elizabeth Sander and Mackenzie Packer.
Sunday was back to business bright and early. We had a 7:30 am wake up time! The Ladies prepared for yet another meet day, the fourth in 8 days. This time we were at Lindenwood for a quad meet with Lindenwood, Seattle Pacific, and Gustavus Adolphus.
The Ladies started the meet on bars. We had a couple outstanding routines starting out the meet by Jenny Jackson, Kendall Sanders, Xian Baumgartner and Sierra Ponder - aka Si~Si. Shout out to Si~Si for matching her season-high on bars of a 9.625. It's exciting to see her competing again after all the hard work she has put in to make this a come-back season. We are so proud of her.
After bars we moved over to beam. Jerrica Harris was again rock solid as she started us off. Dorothy turned in another stellar performance, followed by Xian's beautiful routine. Kendall Sanders wrapped up the event earning a career-high of a 9.725. (so proud of my roomie!!).
When we wrapped up beam, we made our way to the Floor. We had some solid routines, but overall, we had a shaky floor rotation. Want to give a shout out to freshman Kendall Huff for stepping in again and rocking a floor routine, she is becoming a real clutch performer!
We finished the meet on vault and our vault shakers did a fantastic job of closing out the meet. Shout out to Cami Bea Austin once again for being a consistent top score on this event. Our overall team score of the day was a 188.925. Again, we had to count some mistakes as a team, but there were some stellar performances over the weekend to be proud of.
Once the meet was over, we had dinner and made our way to the airport! Thankfully we made our flights. We almost had to leave coach Jackie and Kendall Huff in Dallas over night because they had overbooked the flight with the weight restrictions on the little plane. When they made it on the plane everyone cheered!
Wish the Ladies luck as midterm tests are this week and we continue to travel. We head to North Carolina State Thursday to compete in another tri-meet with William and Mary. Being a student- athlete is not as easy as it looks, but we are determined and dedicated. The Ladies are soaring to new heights and there is so much potential on this team! We remain the number 1 D3 team in the nation after this weekend, which is pretty amazing if I do say so myself. I can't wait to see what else this team has in store.
Until next time,
KKnaps signing outJ
