March 12, 2008

Hi Everybody!

The past week was long and undoubtedly a little taxing on everybody, but we made it through and are eagerly looking forward to what's ahead. We had a couple of extra training days this past week since our meet at GW was on Sunday. Everybody looked great in practice and it seems like things are really starting to come together.

We traveled to GW on Sunday for what was supposed to be a quad meet with WVU and Kent State. Unfortunately, Kent State got snowed in in Ohio and couldn't make the meet so it turned into a tri-meet with just us GW and WVU instead. I personally, was pretty nervous going into the meet. I tore my ACL competing at GW my freshman year, so the idea of going back to that gym again had me a little worried. But the great thing about this year is that our team is so close and so supportive of one another. Everybody was there to help me out and help get me through the meet even though mentally it was really difficult for me. And even though this year may not turn out to be the fairy tale senior season I had been hoping for, having such a great team that is so supportive and so close has been absolutely amazing and unforgettable.

Overall, our meet this weekend showed that we are a team that will fight. We had some rough spots to be sure, but at no point did we give up. And even though we had to fight our way through there were some shining moments as well. Lisa Reifschneider added her double Arabian dismount to her bar routine this week and scored her season high. Allie Dama looked phenomenal on bars as always and punctuated her near flawless routine with a stuck dismount, not to mention competed an exhibition routine on beam for the first time in her career as a Terp! We also had Kaitlin Joseph in the beam line up for the first time and she looked rock solid and confident up there and Brandi George capped off her night with a stuck solid double tuck dismount on beam. It was nice to have both Brandi and Abbey back this week after being sick last weekend as well.

We were ready to get right back in the gym after this weekend though, and we even had a visitor at practice on Monday. The University President, Dr. Mote and the Vice President Dr. Anne Wylie both came to watch us practice and talk with us for a little while. It was quite an honor to have both of them stop by and visit us and really show their interest in our program.

With the President and Vice President's visit getting us off to a good start this week, we are diligently preparing for our last home meet this coming Saturday at 4 pm. It is also our Senior and Alumni night. So we hope to see you there!! Thanks for reading and GO TERPS!!

Gretchen