For the past few years, the Walpole High School gymnastics team had practiced at Paradise Gymnastics, a local gymnastics academy in Walpole, and had sported untraditional pink and black colors as their uniforms. After the 2010-2011 season, the team decided to change things up a bit, moving to New England Sports Acedemy in Westwood and changing their colors back to Walpole High’s blue and orange. With their new look and new coaches, the team was eager to start the competition season.
The team started their dual meet season against Natick High School on January 3, 2012. Walpole started on vault, and Natick on bars. Each team can compete up to six people on each event, keeping the highest four scores. After the first rotation, Walpole had earned 31.4 points on vault with Natick taking away 32.65 points from bars. When the teams switched events, Natick’s lead increased to nearly 13 points, after Walpole only managed to score a total of 22.5 points on bars. Natick also outscored Walpole on beam and floor, scoring almost five points ahead of Walpole on each event. Natick ultimately took the victory with a final score of 134.75, with Walpole scoring 112.3.
Three days after facing Natick, Walpole faced off against Norwood High School on Friday, January 6. Walpole, again, started on vault and brought in 32.5 points, just over one point behind Norwood’s total on vault. Walpole also managed to improve upon their previous team score by one point on vault. Walpole’s next event, bars, once again proved to be the teams biggest weakness. Walpole scored 22.05 points on bars, almost five points behind Norwood’s 27.5 points. Although the team did not manage to make a significant improvement in their cumulative bars score, Freshman Helen Hinton brought her score up but over one point from her first meet on the third. Sophomore Olivia O’Hara also brought her score up by over three tenths. The team also made individual improvements on beam, where Freshman Sarah Armstrong scored nearly two points higher than she did in her first meet. Hinton also improved by one and a half points on the balance beam. Overall, the team’s score on beam went up a total of one and a half points, falling just two points shy of Norwood’s score on the apparatus. After beam, Walpole was behind Norwood by ten points. Walpole’s total score on floor also improved by just over one point, with freshman Bailey Burkett improving her score by 6 tenths and O’Hara improving by 4 tenths. Despite the improvement Walpole saw in their second competition, they still fell shy of victory with their final score of 115.55 against Norwood’s 127.2.
Although the team started out with two losses, the main goal for the Rebels is to improve throughout the season. Junior Captain Caitlin Byrne said “I think we need to improve on really sticking our routines, but we are doing well at keeping positive attitudes. We don’t let the losses affect us. We still do good at the meets and we are willing to step up and try new things.” Coach Elly Hart also says the team needs to improve their routines, saying “We really need to work on balance beam. It is a tough event to stick (stay on), but I know our girls can do it.” Ultimately, the team is hoping that their positive attitudes and goals of improvement will lead to some victories throughout the season.
