The Grand Ledge Gymnastics Team stepped into their shimmering blue and gold leotards in preparation for their last meet of the season. It was the afternoon of March 26th, 2021, and not only was it their last meet, but it was also the biggest. Thirteen teams came together at Rockford High School to compete for a team award and hopefully have some of their competitors qualify for the second day of competition. The Grand Ledge gymnasts had nothing short of a great meet. They placed third in the state overall through confidence and a season full of hard work.

To kick off the meet, the Grand Ledge competitors started on the balance beam. Five gymnasts compete on each of the four events, the events being the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise (in “Olympic order”). According to senior gymnast and one of the two team captains, Lizzie Maurer, the girls started off the competition with “a rough beam rotation.” Four of the five beam competitors had one or more falls on the event. Maurer said that this wasn’t discouraging to the team, but that it was instead used as motivation for them to make up for what they had lost throughout the rest of the meet.

The team’s intense desire to make a comeback on the last three events was effective and successful. Moving in Olympic order, the floor exercise followed the balance beam, where everyone performed solid routines. The Grand Ledge gymnasts finished off the meet with the vault and uneven bars, respectively. Completing these events was said to be challenging, especially for the competitors performing on multiple events, who all began to feel tired and worn out by the end of the meet. Pushing through their exhaustion, the team finished off strong enough to take home the award for third place in the state of Michigan as a team, despite their shaky start on the first event.

The Grand Ledge gymnastics team was thrilled and relieved. “Taking third place in the state meant a lot to me personally since we went from a season where we didn’t make it to regionals to a team simply making it to states, which is a big deal in high school gymnastics,” junior and the second team captain of the gymnastics team, Emma Olds said. Although she didn’t compete in the competition, junior Isabel Tenniswood said that taking third in the state made her feel like all the lengthy practices were worth it and the team’s hard work was paying off.

As a whole, the Grand Ledge gymnasts had a successful season.

“The best part of the season as a whole for me was winning the conference meet and regionals,” Olds said, which  she also replied “so rewarding” and was  “an amazing way to finish off the season.”  Even though they may have had a not-so-great start to the meet, the Grand Ledge gymnastics team showed that they were capable of coming together as a team, focusing on their goals, and encouraging each other during the rest of the competition. The training time they put in throughout the season and supportiveness of one another is what put them on the podium at their state meet, and it will be exciting to see what this team does in future years!