After a highly competitive district meet on February 8, a narrow loss to Loudoun Valley, the team rebounded winning in Region behind overall Region champ Lindsay Miller’s performance setting up a spot in this state competition.
With this season being one of the best yet here at Dominion, the girls did not expect to have this outcome. Madeline Racine said, “The regional championship title really boosted the team’s confidence knowing that the hard work we put in during the season paid off.”
Typically in the gymnastics program they have only had individuals who qualified to compete in the state finals, which has made this experience more fulfilling for the program. As a team they had to practice perfecting their routines with little to no mistakes as they achieved their goals. Kaitlyn McGee said, “We knew we were not going to have it handed to us, we really had to try harder to make it to states and not lose again.”
Last year Lindsay Miller was unable to compete due to injury; this season she has made a huge impact on the team and has placed first in almost every competition this year including her Region title. Miller said, “Gymnastics has always taught me how to overcome hard challenges, and the skills you need to overcome them.”
Similar to Miller, Emma Smiley is a top three scorer making her a big asset throughout this season. Smiley’s season was cut short due to a stress fracture to her navicular bone but earlier was competing on the fracture until she was put into a cast mid January.
Not only is the team super excited for this opportunity but Coach Susan Frontain has also worked hard to get to this point in her coaching career. She said, “They are all talented athletes and it’s [states] just made us stronger as a team.”
The state finals will be held at Lake Braddock High School. The team finals will be this Friday, February 28th and the individual finals will be on Saturday, March 1st. McGee said, “We plan to just leave it all on the floor because we have a lot of tough competition, so we are going to try our hardest to see how high we can get but also just have fun and one last meet together as a team.”
