Covid strikes the Gymnastics team

As the gymnastics season reaches an end, Covid hits the team hard. They have faced many challenges this year but this has been the hardest so far. At the end of February and the beginning of March, the gymnastics team has unfortunately lost 6 of their 19 players. This has impacted their season because now there are only a few players who can compete. As their team is already small and 10 gymnasts need to compete every meet they are struggling to find spots for every event.

Kortney Peterson the head coach of the team describes how other players have stepped up when some of the key players were gone. “13 of our 19 rostered athletes have seen varsity time this year. I think that says a lot about the depth of the team and how every individual has put in the effort to keep the team going.”

She has had a hard time this year finding spots for everyone on the team and with having more and more girls out her roster is dwindling. This has been really hard for the seniors of the team as well, this is supposed to be the best times of their life and some of the last times they will do gymnastics at this level ever again but it is taken away from them. Meets are few and far between and not being able to compete at large competitions or with more than one team the mental health of the gymnasts have struggled.

“It is so sad to realize that this is our last season and I won’t be able to compete ever again,” said senior Kaylee Hutchinson as she gets ready to perform at her last meets of her senior year.

There are three seniors in gymnastics this year; Paige Kalis, Kaylee Hutchinson, and Brooke Aschenbrenner. All three seniors are trying their hardest to stay covid free, healthy, and be able to compete in their last meets. They have one regular-season competition left and then they will move onto conference and sections so they are hoping they can last the rest of the season will no more positive tests!