After placing 2nd at the regional competition on April 13, the team traveled to Rockwall High School for the state competition on April 25.
The team did not place but had several place individually. Sophomore Ana Simpson placed 17th in the All-Around and 26th on the Bars. Senior Captain Kennedy Downing finished 23rd on All-Around and 21st on the Beam.
Simpson was ranked the highest female gymnast at Highland Park for the season and Downing finished 2nd. Downing was also named to compete on the Senior National Team in Fort Meyers Florida.
The varsity gymnastics team won their first meet for the district competition with a score of 106.90 on March 29, at the Hegi Family Gymnastics Center and has since advanced all the way to state, departing April 20 for the competition.
The event took place over two days where the team went up against Lakeview Centennial, Irving High, Irving MacArthur and Irving Nimitz.
Sophomore Lily Ford competed in all four events with her best being a 9.5 on the balance beam. Ford, along with the rest of her team, practices everyday from the start of 8th period to 4:45.
Ford had mixed feelings about the team’s performance.
“A lot of vaults were not as good as they could have been, but they were pretty good,” Ford said. “The floor was great, the beam was great and the bars were great.
Ford feels there are some areas for improvement for both the team and herself, but is overall happy with how the competition turned out.
“I would say this meet was pretty good overall. It gets better each meet, it’s fun and we just enjoy ourselves,” Ford said. “I do want to work on my aerial because it’s a fun skill and it’s cool to do, especially on beam.”
The team competed in four events, balance beam, floor exercise, vault, and bars where they were able to take all around team gold .
Sophomore Ana Simpson also competed in all four events, maintaining an overall score of 35.
“I think I did pretty good, but I definitely messed up on a few things because I was nervous, but I’d say overall it went pretty good,” Simpson said.
Senior Kennedy Downing felt the meet was important as it helped the team strengthen their competition skills and put their training to the test.
“This meet was really important for the team because we were defending our district title,” Downing said. “It gets us ready for our more important postseason meets like regionals and state.”
