Heyyyy Ladies fans!! It's your favorite sophomores here to give you the lowdown from MIC weekend! We had lots of fun and left some killer gymnastics up in Missouri. Last weekend capped off the season for us Ladies, but we were fortunate to have 5 individual qualifiers to represent Centenary at USAG Nationals! Catch them doing some cool flips at West Chester on April 11th - 14th! Go Ladies!
This year, MICs was hosted by Lindenwood in the Hyland Arena. Next year it will be hosted by the one and only Centenary, right at home in the dome. We made our way up to Lindenwood by bus last Thursday to be ready for an awesome practice day on Friday. The Ladies were up bright and early to head out and grab some breakfast sandwiches and coffee at St. Louis Bread Co., aka the first Panera Bread ever! Once we got to the arena, we did our visualizations as usual, then led off the day strong by starting practice day on vault! We then moved through to the rest of the events to get comfortable on the equipment and be ready for go time the next day.
After practice the Ladies grabbed some lunch and had a few hours to chill at the hotel with lunch, family, and friends. Later that night we attended the annual MIC Banquet. We sure are some good-looking ladies who know how to dress up once in a while! Once all of the well-deserved awards were presented, we then drew to see who could pick which event they wanted to start on first, and this year Ladies got first pick!! After all the teams decided their starting event, we went back to our hotel to rest up for the big day!
The next morning the Ladies started the day of strong with a delicious brunch buffet. Then once all the Ladies were all dolled up, we headed out for Lindenwood one last time to wrap up this season. Since the Ladies got first pick for a starting event, we decided to go with the bye rotation. Starting with the bye gave us a great opportunity to preserve some energy after warmups, while also giving us time to GET HYPEEEEE!!! Per usual for the Ladies.
Then we were off to bars!! Houlas were ready to grip up and get down, and boy did they show out! A personal favorite highlight of mine was a show stopping routine from our senior captain, Roxanne Myers! A few more well deserved shoutouts to my fellow sophomores Claire Flores and Sophie Schmitz, who you can always count on to bar-star it up!
The beam lineup had some queens, that's for sure!! Our Senior lead off Rylie Molina scored a career high 9.775, AND one of the judges even gave her a 9.95! How awesome is that?? Rylie has always been a steady lead off for the Ladies and we can't wait to see how awesome she does at USAG Nationals this year. Shout out to sophomores Sophie Schmitz and Amy Foret for their spectacular beam routines as well! They both had an amazing season and stepped up for the Ladies when we needed it most. Sophie Schmitz is new to the beam line up this year and proved herself as a steady competitor. Amy Foret isn't a new face in the beam lineup, but this super girl battled back from surgery just in time for season. She was our solid and steady anchor. They both have so much to be proud of!
You could tell our floor roars were amped up and ready to hit the floor one more time! Our lead-off (one and only super senior KHuff!) always does the BEST job at getting the crowd pumped and ready to dance along for the rest of our lineup! Speaking of dance, it is a real shame if you managed to miss any of freshman Willie Williams floor routines this year. They are so awesome that she is going to Nationals to prove one more time how great of a dancer and tumbler she is! (Seriously, her routine is so fun it makes me think I can dance!) (I cannot dance) Claire Flores, I mean Taylor Swift, scored her career high on floor when we needed it most! She sure knows how to put on a show when Taylor comes on the speakers! We also have another lady going to nationals on floor this year, and I am so proud to announce that it is my 5th year Lacey Wedge! So proud of every one of my floor roars this season, they put the work in, and it showed!
Those vault shakers were on FIRE! To start us off, Sophomore Emily McClung was our lead off! She stepped in for the Ladies this year and killed it every time. Another Sophomore shout out!!! Sophie Schmitz stuck her vault, and the Ladies went wild!!! Senior Izzie Plaza finished off her vault career strong. We will surely miss her power in our lineup. The Ladies had another strong career finish from super senior Kendall Huff. She has been a staple in the Ladies' vault line up and we will sure miss her. The Ladies went 5 for 5 on vault to finish off the MIC Championships.
Even though the Ladies season as a whole team might be over, we still have more gymnastics to come! We have 5 amazing girls headed to West Chester, Pennsylvania for USAG Nationals! Huge shout out to Freshman Olivia (Willie) Williams, Sophomores Sophie Schmitz, and Amy Foret, Senior Rylie Molina, and Super Senior Lacey Wedge on all their hard work. It has surely paid off and we can't wait to see what you accomplish.
The Ladies had a season of peaks and valleys, but they never gave up. The growth from the beginning of season to the end was incredible and the lessons learned were invaluable. This team has so much to be proud of! So many memories and bonds were created, and we are already counting down the days until next season!!
Don't miss us too much… Until Next time Ladies' Fans!!
- The Centenary Gymnastics Sophomores (Sophie, Claire, Olivia, Emily, and Amy)
