Page 176 - 1996.Milard.North

For the third straight year, fe-

male ~· mnasts were champions.
-

During a du
meet again
Burk•
by Michelle Lee sophomo1
Jamie lrw
presents h•
The aroma of hand so much thi s year. My fa- always had each other in beam routin
chalk hung in the air and vorite event was the floor, mind. We did everything as After This seaso
settled on the well-used so I perfected a lot of new a team," sophomore Vicky completing her Irwin earne
the Elite A
floor routine,
equipment decorating the floor maneuvers for my rou- Huff said. third-year American, <
hon•
mezzanine. For those clad tines, such as a front aerial Although it was not gymnast accomplishe
senior Chrissy
in sweaty practice clothes (front walkover with no the State champion this year, Pohl smiles by maintainir
rehearsing hands), a whipback (back the boys team acheived their with relief. a certain scot
avera~
routines all handspring with no hands), season-long goal at the state Pohl also throughout <
competed in
"Our team concentrated on over the and many new dance tech- meet. "lt was our goal for vault. photo meets. pho
room, this niques," Levesque said . the year to score over I 00 at by Bridget byJonath<
what everyone else felt like. was the This hard work and a meet. Previously, our high- Kowal Uland<
place where newfound knowledge was a est ranking had been only
We always had each other skills were big factor in the girls team's 81.00, but at State we sur-
in mind and did everything learped, rou- third State win. However, passed our goal with a score
tines were according to coach Bridget of 103.55," senior Chad
as a team." perfected, Kowal, "our biggest factor Richter said.
bonds were in taking State was the depth
However, these tri-
formed, and of the team. There were so umphs were not without
goals were achieved. many girls that were so good. tribulations. Aside from the
"Besides the fact Although only five got to small (four-person) size of
that practices were held ev- compete, there were many the team, "our biggest origi-
ery day after school, one of more that could have done nal obstacle was getting used
my favorite things about par- as well." to the techniques and expec-
ticipating in gymnastics was From a gymnast's tations of our new coach. lt
that it was a great way to perspective, though, other was hard at first, but we soon
meet people and make new factors played a part in vic- adapted. In the end, he was
friends," sophomore Cathy tory. "The biggest influ- a terrific coach who taught
Levesque said. ence for our third-year State me so much about the sport.
Along with the fun win was teamwork. Our He was probably the best
times, though, a lot of work team concentrated on what coach I've ever had," Rich-
-
was being done. "I learned everyone else felt like. We ter said .•

Anxious to
present their
floor routines,
sophomore
Mike Holm,
senior David
Just, and junior
Brad Swan
wait for the
meet to begin.
With only four
guys on the
team, Holm,
Just, Swan,
and senior
Chad Richter
had to work
extra hard to
make up for
their small
numbers.
- Preparing for the pommel horse at the Omaha North dual photo by
meet is sophomore Mike Holm. Holm, who also competed in vault, Jonathan
achieved All-American status in vault this season. photo by Jonathan U/anday
Ulanday

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