Huddled around in suspense, senior Yasmeen Taha and the rest of the girls gymnastics team waited to find out the results of the first meet at Vernon Hills on Nov. 28.
“We kind of went into it assuming that we were going to lose because we were supposed to lose [since] Vernon Hills was second in the state last year,” Taha said.
The team won the meet, scoring a 132.150 overall.
Before competing on bars, freshman Lexie Glowacki felt nervous going into the first competition. She is one of the all-around gymnasts on the varsity team.
“It was the mix of the first meet, and the skills I am doing are new to me this year,” said Glowacki. “So, they’re not perfect or relatively close.”
“Now that we’ve done the first meet, we know how we compete [and] how we’re going to do, and we can only improve,” Glowacki said.
Glowacki placed second overall as an all-around gymnast at the Vernon Hills meet and scored a 33.450.
The team has a lot more depth this year, and there are more girls to be pulled from in a lineup, head coach Julie Holmbeck said.
“I have nine girls that will be vying in and out for five spots, so it’s [going to] be a little competitive,” said Holmbeck. “We just have a lot of depth this year, so girls might go back and forth between varsity and JV or thrown all over. So they might not compete all-around on varsity, they might specialize [in one event] and towards the end of the season, do one or two events.”
The team is working on improving technique and connecting smoothly when going from one skill to another in a routine, Holmbeck said.
According to Taha, the girls are good at knowing their strengths and when they should be taken off of an event for a meet, but they also need to improve on the execution of the skills.
“I think we’re all very good gymnasts,” said Taha. “We just have to hit and do everything.”
After beating New Trier last year, the Glenbrook North team has a goal of beating the team again today.
“We beat New Trier last year for the first time [in like 10 years] before break, and it was just the best gift,” Holmbeck said.
Glowacki scored her personal best of 35.60 at a meet against Maine South on Dec. 5. The team placed first at the Spartan Classic with a record high of 142.925 on Dec. 8 (4-0 CSL South Division).
“A lot of times we start high and go low, so just having a steady increase and staying healthy… so getting [our routines] to finish the season out strong [is a goal],” said Taha. “Starting strong and finishing strong.”