Nationals Part One
March and April passed in a blur. With the end of senior year approaching, and Nationals coming up quickly, I was powering through my academic work for school and training hard almost every day.
May came up quickly, so on Thursday the 18th at 5 am in the morning, my bags were packed and the car was loaded for my trip to the airport. My mom and I would be making the trip to Fort Myers, Florida for a weekend of competition and memories. Not only was I excited but I was ready. Prepared. This was once again my time to shine.
I was a bundle of nerves and excitement on the plane waiting impatiently for it to land so I could be united with my coaches, and my 15 other teammates, who would all be representing the state of Massachusetts.
Once it finally landed I was rushed to the facility where each state was given time to practice, and test out the equipment we would be using for the next 2 days of competition. I had a solid practice. Making sure I didn’t overdo it, I got done everything I needed to do to make sure my body would be well enough for not just one day of competition, but two (hopefully).
As the first day of competition is meant for the team, this means that the top 5 scores from each event for a State contribute to the states total team score. The state with the highest total team score wins.
The second day of competition, event finals, includes the athletes who received the top 10 scores on each event. In other words not every gymnast is guaranteed to compete the second day.
Stressful, yes.
We left practice in a parade of black SUVs like we were special people and made our way back to the hotel. A hotel with a beautiful view of the ocean, and access to the white sand beaches.
A nice getaway from the repetitive life I had been living in Massachusetts.
But that night was not a night for adventure. Instead, we were sent to bed early that night so we could get a good night’s sleep before the long day of competition we were about to go through. So, Friday morning I woke up excited, put my new leotard on, added some glitter to my hair, and a tattoo of Massachusetts on my face and was ready.
Once we all arrived at the facility, we learned how we were starting on bars and that’s when I knew I was about to rock this competition. How better to start then on one of my best events?
Our coaches knew this was my best event and put me last in the order, like I had been so many times before, so I could end us strong on our first event.
And I did. I Scored a solid 9.550, a fantastic score.
We went to beam, and I managed to stay on this time! We made our way to floor and I again scored a 9.550! I finished up on vault and landed both of them for a very strong all- around score.
As I’m running out of room on this blog, in order to find out if I qualified for the event finals and how well team Massachusetts did you’ll just have to read my next blog…
Hi Julia!!
I did not know that you’re a gymnast, that is so cool!! Back in my early days (meaning pre-high school), I also used to be a gymnast. I remember how intense it was even then at such a young age, I can only imagine what it would be like to do throughout high school. Even when I first started competing around age 10 I was in the gym 4 days a week, for 4 hours each day… so I can’t even imagine what your schedule was like, and the toll that took on your body! However, I eventually ended up choosing soccer over gymnastics, and now play here at Penn State. Although I used to be a gymnast, I’ve actually had similar experiences to the meet you’re describing in the blog but not from my gymnastics days.. from soccer! When I was in high school, there was a huge tournament every year in which all the states competed against each other in their own regional tournament. The best 20 or so players from each team got picked to represent their state… and trust me I felt the nerves just like you did!! Even though it was nerve-wrecking at the time, I’m sure you look back at it as one of the best experiences. I’m excited to hear how your story plays out!!
Kerry Abello