Currently ranked 85th in the roadtonationals.com poll, the Hamline Gymnastics program is now officially halfway through the season.
On Friday, Feb. 7, Hamline University took on Winona State in an away meet. The Hamline Gymnastics team placed second overall with a final score of 180.350. Seniors Brianna Weikel and Julia Cheely topped the charts during the Balance Beam taking first and second place respectively. Cheely also prevailed in her second event taking first place in the Uneven Bars and overall placed second in the All-Around.
Among the many exciting things about being a college athlete, Cheely notes that the opportunities granted to her through Hamline Gymnastics are one of her favorite things.
“Of course, I loved going to Colorado, that was so cool,” Cheely said. “I think while I was in Colorado it made me think a lot about all the opportunities that being in gymnastics here has given me, so that one definitely. But honestly, just like the environment at all the meets this year has been great just like all the cheering and everyone being super supportive is probably just been my favorite.”
Gymnastics is not only a very physically demanding sport with years of practice and training to perfect their events, but also a very mentally taxing sport. In gymnastics, athletes are not only competing against different division three schools, but also their own teammates that they train and interact with every day.
“We do a really good job of supporting each other because you have to compete for your spot and this is the best team I have ever been on and the best team I’ve ever seen with my own eyes in terms of competing for lineup spots,” Hintz said, “ … I’ve seen in other teams I’ve been on, they'll go argue with the coaches, they'll go talk badly about each other but at Hamline, we have never done that, we’ve always been really good.”
Hintz credits the support each of her teammates can provide to one another to all the time they spend together, comparing them to a big family of sisters. Hintz also cites that the team practices for three to four hours every day, on weekends they fundraise or volunteer, help set up for meets, go on trips together (their most recent being to Colorado), spend lots of time in hotels with one another at away meets and in addition to many of the team members living together.
Hintz notes that some ways fans could show their support is by keeping up with their Instagram (@hugymnastics) because they always post their meets by showing their warmups and routines and they also post the schedules and where the meets are held. Hintz also told me that if supporters cannot physically attend their meets, the team always livestreams their meets on Facebook (@hamlinepipergymnastics). The live streams tend to feature commentary from the gymnastics team. The commentary is beginner friendly, where the girls will explain what is going on, the terminology being used by the judges, and scoring by saying why points are being deducted, connection bonuses and difficulty.
“One person’s success is everyone’s success," Cheely said. the whole team mentality of when one person does good the whole team does good.”
This season the Hamline Gymnastics team has shown everyone that sticking together and cheering on their teammates will help uplift one another to become the best team that they can be.