Forest Hills gymnastics came neck and neck with Kenowa Hills this Wednesday, January 11. Just short of a victory, Forest Hills ended with 125 points, and Kenowa ended with 127. 

The energy was high going into the meet. The girls have been working hard on being encouraging and positive to create a good gymnastics atmosphere. 

“The energy was extremely good, everyone was super happy to compete. Despite a few girls losing this energy throughout the long meet, it generally stayed the same,” said sophomore Claire Worth. 

With the soaring feelings, many of the gymnasts qualified for each event: 6/6 girls qualified on vault, 6/7 girls qualified on bars, 4/7 qualified on floor, and 3/7 qualified on beam. These qualifying scores mean the team is headed to regionals. Senior Lauren Wolffis is happy yet anxious about regionals.

“I believe in our team, and I think we can put up a good score,” she said, “but I’m still quite nervous being that we have had lower scores this year than last.”

Despite the loss, the team still achieved many great scores; two girls had personal records. Claire had her highest score on vault, a score of 9.0—the first nine of the season. Senior captain Charlotte Stephan secured an 8.575 on vault, her best one yet. The other highest scores were 7.75 on bars by junior Rachael Yeager, 8.475 on beam by another junior, Jia Niemeyer, and 8.15 on floor by senior Maddy Bachert. 

There were a few milestones, one being on beam. 

“It was our last event of the day, so our energy was low. Beam is always the most nerve-racking event for most of us—especially me,” said Lauren. 

Nevertheless, the meet and the scores it brought were something to be proud of. The ladies have improved since their last meet, and they aren’t backing down anytime soon. 

“I’m most proud of the people that were scared to do a certain event, and they actually did pretty well on it and brought in qualifying scores,” Claire said. ”This gives us a push to keep fighting and practicing to get better.”

Looking into the future, there will still be things to tweak and moves to make. The team is determined and hungry for regionals. 

The gymnasts will be traveling to Lowell High School for the Lowell Invite on Saturday, January 14, at 10 a.m. where they will go up against multiple opponents.