South Lakes gymnastics team had a fantastic season this year! After placing third at districts and qualifying as a team to advance, South Lakes placed fourth in the region. Prior to regionals we asked the gymnasts some questions about their expectations. 

Senior Jamie Banton has been on the team for all four years of high school and at regionals competed all around at every event. Her goals going into her last high school competition were  “to not fall on beam, to complete all of my routines and to have fun.” Her favorite memory from this season was “my beam routine at district, getting an 8.8.” 

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Something that varies for many athletes is the specific goals that they set for themselves. All around gymnast Olive Forsen says that she focuses on score based goals and performance goals equally because she wants herself to “do well” but also “stay grounded”. 

Skills help gymnasts score higher. One thing junior Mithra Venkatesan does to score higher is “working on my routines at practice and putting new skills in so I can score higher.” Athletes want to do their best but sometimes it’s not always about scores. 

Gymnastics is an individual sport and sometimes mental blocks can be gymnasts biggest challenges. “The biggest challenge has definitely been nerves before competing because gymnastics is a very mental sport. When I have high expectations I don’t perform well and I have overcome that it’s ok to have off days,” Venkatesan said. 

Now that gymnastics season is officially over Venkatesan and Forsen share their favorite part of the season. Forsen says her favorite highlight of the season was “Probably finding out we are going to regionals after originally thinking we weren’t going to.” While Forsen’s highlight was more team based, Venkatesan’s is an individual accomplishment. She says, “My most memorable moment from this season was getting my first nine on bars.”