Gymnasts soar with new talent

Leaping+above+the+beam%2C+junior+Sam+Brazeau+competed+against+Hudson+on+January+6+2016.+

Permission Jeff Slovin

Leaping above the beam, junior Sam Brazeau competed against Hudson on January 6 2016.

Kara Hadden, Staff Writer

The girls’ gymnastics team has cartwheeled itself into a winning season, with a current league record of 3-1-0.

“The season is off to a great start,” assistant coach Crystal Bissett said. “The girls are full of energy and enthusiasm, and there’s a great team spirit that fills the gym.”

“The season is off to a great start,” assistant coach Crystal Bissett said. “The girls are full of energy and enthusiasm, and there’s a great team spirit that fills the gym.”

“It’s been awesome,” senior captain Allie Wickham said. “We’ve been getting consistent high scores compared to the past few seasons.”

At the outset, however, things were not looking quite as positive.

“We started the season with one of our top gymnasts, sophomore Erin O’Reilly, out with a knee injury from soccer,” head coach Jennifer Crook said. “Luckily, with some new additions to the team and with veterans really stepping it up, we are still going strong!”

Among the newcomers is senior Kerry Luiso, who has participated in club gymnastics since the age of three and is a level ten, or “diamond,” gymnast.

“This year I quit the program I had been doing all my life to do high school gymnastics,” Luiso said. “So far I am loving being a part of the team. It’s a great feeling competing with all of the girls on the team because they are constantly cheering and want you to do your absolute best.”

“[Luiso] is definitely our superstar so it’s nice to have her for her senior year after years of only doing club gymnastics,” Wickham said.

5D3_5148 smallerPermission Jeff Slovin

Wickham is another notable competitor, along with senior Sarah Baptiste, junior Sam Brazeau, sophomores Julia Callaghan, O’Reilly, and Emma Rosen, and freshmen RaiAnn Bu, Leanne Hart, Katelyn Reynolds and Tessa McAndrews.

“These girls are all so talented and hard working and I’m so grateful I get the opportunity to coach them!” Crook said.

Despite it being their only loss, the team’s best meet so far was against Shrewsbury, where they scored 138.85 points out of a possible 160.

“The meet before [the Shrewsbury meet], we’d had a few scary falls, including mine on bars,” Wickham said. “So everyone bouncing back Saturday after a not so great meet was a very prominent comeback.”

“We have the potential to score even higher, but we also don’t want to peak too soon,” Crook said. “We want to be scoring our highest closer to Leagues and Sectionals later in the season.”

This optimistic outlook seems to be unanimous among the team members.

“I feel like our team is definitely improving!” Luiso said.

“We have a lot more girls getting new skills who will hopefully have a chance to make the line up,” Callaghan said.

“We are very motivated right now,” Crook said. “We’ve been working on staying positive and coming together as a team and it has shown in both our support of one another and consequently in our gymnastics.”