With a front-loaded schedule against 2 of the top teams first — Wellesley on January 7 at Exxcel Gymnastics in Newton and Newton North on January 12 at Newton North High School — Walpole quickly fell to a record of 0-2 against these top teams. However, on January 13 at New England Sports Academy (NESA) in Westwood, the Rebels defeated Norwood with a final score of 125.85 to 123.7 to improve their record to 1-2.

Because of a snowstorm on January 3, their season opener against Framingham was postponed to a later, to-be-determined date. On January 7, the team suffered a 138.45 to 127.4 loss against last year’s Bay State Conference Champions: Wellesley. Next, Rebel Gymnastics lost to Newton North with a final score of 133.525 to 124.275.  For these first two meets, in addition to facing two of the toughest team in the Bay State, sophomores Sam Chauvin and Hannah Phelan were sidelined because of injuries they had sustained prior to the beginning of the season.

Despite the o-2 start to the season, junior Captain Christina Coville said, “Of course it’s always important to win meets but we have to keep in mind that we just need to bring up our overall score.” As one of the season goals, the team wants a high average team score in order to qualify them for the State meet in February.

At the meet against Norwood at NESA, both Hannah and Sam competed and contributed essential points for the victory. Sam’s performance on the beam stuck out as a comeback routine that scored high with an 8.2 out of a possible 10 points. Sophomore Kaitlin Porter also scored high on vault by executing a tsukahara (a round-off onto the vault and backflip off) in pike position which scored an 8.8 out of a possible 10 points. This was the highest score from Walpole on vault for this season.

The team has also benefitted from freshman additions to the roster.  Freshman Brigid Ford competed on vault for the first time in her career, and freshman Sarah Stanton competed floor for the first time and scored high with a 7.5.

Junior Captain Sarah Armstrong said that after two consecutive losses, “The win was a huge relief.” Rebel Gymnastics looks for their second win of the season against Brookline on Friday, January 17.