On Saturday, February 15, Essex High School hosted the VT State High School Gymnastics Championships.
The Harwood Highlander girls’ gymnastics team entered the championships seeded eighth after finishing the regular season with a record of 1-6.
“The coaches looked at each of the girls’ routines to ensure that the gymnasts were maximizing their start values while minimizing their deductions,” said coach Tanya Cheney. “During the last two weeks of the regular season several gymnasts learned new skills and raised their start values by over a half point.”
On Saturday the girls had a strong showing on their first event, floor. At the end of the rotation the Highlanders’ team score was 27.375. They then moved on to vault where they added another 27.45 points to their team score. The Highlanders headed to bars for the third rotation. It was here that the Highlanders struggled. The team finished bars with 18.9 points.
Beam was the Highlanders’ strongest event. Delana Cheney led the Highlanders on beam with her 9.075 routine. The Highlanders added 31.775 points to their team score after the beam event.
The Highlanders finished the day in fifth place with a team score of 105.50. They surpassed their team goal of winning sixth place at the championships. Champlain Valley Union High School won the championship, followed by Essex High School, St. Johnsbury Academy and Milton.
