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TWU Home > Student Life > Athletics > Gymnastics > 4/20/07
PIONEER POST from Courtney |
Pioneer Post - April 20, 2007
 (Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of "Pioneer Posts" from Seattle, Washington detailing the TWU Pioneers experiences at the 2007 USAG National Championships)
Hello to all of our wonderful Pioneer gymnastics fans!
Well, our season is almost complete. Tonight we competed in team finals at the national championships and tomorrow 4 of our athletes will compete for national titles on all four events. We finished prelims last night building confidence and our team unity in preparation for our final team competition of the year.
We started the day out with an underlying sense of excitement and anticipation for tonight’s competition. The coaches gave us the morning to rest and do some sight-seeing with our families. Many of us went to tour this fun city of Seattle and we had such a great time together. I personally went on a Duck Tour with a couple of the girls. We went on an amphibious vehicle that drove through the city and then went into the water to tour the harbor. I guess I was being my usual exuberant self and the bus driver picked me out to come up front to steer the boat! He was really funny and we had a great time.
So, we all met for lunch at the hotel and then began our usual meet preparation. This was the last time this team will ever spend together getting ready for competition. During this time all the butterflies were starting to kick in and we were getting so excited to get the gym and get this meet started.
We started the meet on bars and it was the most amazing rotation of gymnastics I think any of us has ever experienced. Keri Miller was first up and she made me cry before she even started, she did such an incredible bar routine to start us off. Then the rest of the bar team followed with what I think was the best routines they could have ever done. Kelsey Nixon was fifth and she has only competed bars once this season. But when Brista Michael broke her finger last week Kelsey was put into the line-up to take her place. Kelsey did the most amazing set of her life, you should have seen us! Everyone was crying and jumping up and down, even Coach was doing some funky dance across the mat as Kelsey was setting up to do her dismount! Then I was ready to go as the anchor, and after all my teammates had done their job and set me up I knew it was going to be a great set.
Then we went to beam, and after the excitement of bars we really had to calm ourselves down a little, but we kept the ball rolling and we made all 6 routines. Leslie Pladson was the star of this event as she hurt her ankle last night during prelims and we weren’t even sure she was going to be able to compete. She stepped it up for her team and hit her routine! Being a freshman competing beam at nationals is hard enough, but doing it injured and hitting was outstanding! Miss Tonya Pipkorn finished this event with the best beam routine she has ever done, and with hit after hit we could all feel the amazing joy of competing and coming together. We were on roll and I could see the confidence and determination in each and everyone’s eyes.
Next was floor! It was our third event, and we were ready to rock. We started off with a fall, which no one expected and I think it scared everyone a little. The meet wasn’t over though and we continued on. We then had a second fall, and then a third, and some out of bounds, and through all of this, our hearts began to stop beating so fast. We all knew we had the ability to hit our routines as we had shown the night before, but at that moment on this night, we did not do it. As a senior, and a college gymnast, I know one the hardest things to do as an athlete, is to pick it back up after an occurrence like this happens. Going from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows is one of the hardest feelings to embrace. We still had vault to go, which is one of the most intense events in gymnastics. Our vault team pulled it together with 5 amazing vaults. Senior Catherine Schnoes performed an outstanding front handspring front pike with a top score of 9.775. We came together at that moment, and to me that is what this sport is all about. We did not win the meet tonight, but our team became a winning team at that moment.
To say the least we were really disappointed and upset about our outcome tonight, we had prepared all year for the opportunity to compete for the national championship and it was an exciting night. We didn’t come out on top like we wanted, but we learned some really tough lessons through this experience. We came together as a team tonight through our incredibly high moments and our low moments and what matters in the end is the hard work, sweat and tears we have put into this team and the relationships we have built this year. The fact that we have all had this opportunity to represent our coaches, our school, the community and our families this week-end was a gift in itself. We came, we fought and we will be back again!
Thank you all for your support this year. It has been an amazing ride and we appreciate all of our family, fans and friends for their continuous love and support.
Go PiONEers!
Love,
Courtney
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