Competing against Medford High School on January 13th, the Malden High gymnastics team brought determination and teamwork into all of the events in their first meet of the season.
Upon entering Medford High’s gymnastics room, there was no doubt that the team was nervous. Sophomore Mackenzie Hartin, who began the sport when she was younger, but had briefly paused until now, stated how “before the events started” she was anxious “given it was the first meet of the season.” Despite her nervousness, her teammates and coaches were supportive and encouraged her along the way.
This year, the gymnastics team welcomed many new faces. Although various new members had never competed before, Coach Michael Nicholson started off the season by evaluating what the team knows and does not know, deciding to begin with the fundamentals of gymnastics such as “cartwheels and forward rolls,” and focusing on “jumps and turns as well as keeping bodies straight and toe pointed,” shared Nicholson.
In their first meet, there were a total of four events that the team participated in, consisting of vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. In each event, around four to six people are able to compete at a time, each person is scored out of ten, and the final score of the event takes only the top four scorers.
As each team finished stretching and practicing, both teams went off to compete in their first event, with Malden on the uneven bars. Hartin competed first and started off strong with a score of 5.2.
Next was freshman Taya Rubin-Wilson who excitedly joined upon finding out that Malden High had a gymnastics team, scoring 5.3. After Rubin-Wilson, it was sophomore Phalangecia Jean Charles with 5.5 and lastly, junior captain Sofia Vargas who scored 6.3. Malden ended their first event with a final score of 22.30.
“Before competing in each event, I always get really nervous that the worst possible situation could happen. However, after a few deep breaths to calm me down and words of encouragement from the team to hype me up, I usually feel more ready to compete,” explained Vargas who has been doing gymnastics since she was nine years old.
The team’s next event was the vault, during which each gymnast sprinted down a runway, jumped onto a springboard, dived onto a vault table, and then performed either flips or straddles on it before landing on a soft mat.
The first person to perform was sophomore Saphirha Depeine who scored 5.0. Rubin-Wilson followed her with a 5.0, sophomore Arielle Leconte similarly scored a 5.0, followed by Jean Charles who scored 6.15, and finally Vargas brought up the final score of 24.85 with a 7.8.
The third event was a floor exercise which focused not only on each gymnast’s techniques and skills, but also their artistry. First up was sophomore Alyssa Lynch, whose song was a mashup of different Disney songs. Lynch chose this song because she “liked the change in beat, and how altogether it was super upbeat.”
Next, Jean Charles performed the song “Talk Dirty To Me” by Jason Derulo. She picked the song because it matched her personality. Rubin-Wilson performed next with a Michael Jackson themed performance with the song “Thriller”.
The next two gymnasts who competed in the floor exercise were Hartin, who performed to the song “Roses” by The Chainsmokers, and freshman Skaina Jean performed the song “Breakin’ Dishes” by Rihanna, mentioning, “I had many songs to choose, but my coach advised me to choose something upbeat and hard since it best fit my style.”
Although this was Jean’s only event she competed in, she commented how her favorite is the vault. “It’s over quickly, and you get two tries. Not only that but, they only take in count your best attempt.” The last person to compete in the floor exercise was Vargas who performed “Dance to It”, finalizing the score of the floor exercise as 25.40.
The final event for Malden was the balance beam, which is one of the more difficult events due to the beam being narrow, needing core strength, precise control, but mainly requiring a strong mental focus. On the balance beam, gymnasts perform a series of leaps, jumps, turns, a form of acrobatics, and dance elements while maintaining balance.
On the beam were freshmen Vanessa Huang and Maria Diniz, sophomores Larielle Leconte, Arielle Leconte, Jean Charles, and Vargas. The team scored 25.40, however, Malden unfortunately lost to Medford with the final score of 103.90-87.95.
Despite the loss, Vargas voiced, “I think this was a really good first meet for the team to experience what competition is like and get comfortable with all their routines, even if we didn’t win.” Moving forward for the rest of the season, she hopes to gain more skills on the uneven bars and on the floor exercise.
Jean mentioned how the new season has been amazing, due to the unwavering support from her teammates. “My goal for this season is definitely to improve my flexibility. It’s something that I definitely need to acquire more skills.”
Though Hartin aims to be more consistent on the uneven bars event, she shared that the bars are still her favorite as they challenge her to be more precise. Ultimately wanting to grow as a gymnast, she hopes “to contribute to the team’s success by improving scores and helping teammates.”
Nicholson praised the team for their performances despite their nervousness and loss, concluding that their goal of the season is to improve their score from the previous meet. “We look at what we did well on all of the events and what each athlete can improve on to increase their score. Small adjustments can make a huge difference. If each athlete can improve their score, even by a tenth of a point, we will score higher,” he elaborated.
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