The Girls’ Varsity gymnastics team headed to Palatine High school to compete in state Feb. 17 and 18. Their hard work weeks prior to the competition ultimately paid off as they ended up placing 1st in state overall. 

State is the toughest competition of the season, driving the team to work harder at skills and routines than they have previously. Head Coach, Krystin Campos instructed more on technique and choreography for the competition. 

“I worked with the team to get ready for state by upgrading our routines, and helping them become consistent and confident in the skills they’re performing,”  Campos said. “The cohesion the girls have and the drive to succeed makes us great. We knew the state meet to be a great competition where we could go in and be confident in our skills.”

The team is a group of versatile athletes who qualified for a variety of events in state. Senior, Emily Smetana competed individually in a floor routine and was able to individually place 7th in the state.

“I have worked super hard to push myself this season. I was super excited to compete them and proud that all the work had paid off,” Smetana said. “My goal for state was to not only hit my routines with confidence, but to have the rest of my team compete with this mindset. Of course with our ranking, a state trophy would be an incredible experience; we couldn’t focus on that, but rather our routines.”

Freshman Emilie Kutcha qualified to compete on the vault, and was grateful to be apart of a team of who had a close bond. She believes this connection between the team aided their success this season.

“The strongest aspect of the team is that we’re all so close to one another, and we’re super supportive of each other. I think being in the gym with encouraging teammates boosted my confidence about competing at state,” Kutcha said.

Along with being able to improve gymnastics skills and technique, the team gained more knowledge of hard work and patience when competing. Senior Kathryn Snouffer is going to use what she learned from competing at state in her future life.

“I learned that not everything comes automatically. A lot of times, you have to be very very patient with yourself and just trust the process,” Snouffer said. “It’s easy to want everything to be perfect right off the bat, but the reality is that having patience is one of the biggest skills in this sport.”

The team’s success this year allowed them to compete at the highest level and learn together from it. Assistant coach Kylie Bosco believes this experience will help the younger girls on the team for future seasons.

“We have a really young team. Most of our team is freshmen and newcomers. We hope the girls get a taste for how amazing this experience is and how fun it can be,” Bosco said. “We want them to be proud of themselves and look forward to similar work for future years.”

Overall the team’s strong bond, hard work, and desire to win lead to their great success in the state competition, and they believe it will lead to more achievements in the future.