This has meant a lot of weird nights at the gym, lots of private practices, and lots of tears and frustration. All of the stress and extra practice also resulted in a pulled muscle in her back.
We started out the day with me at work because hello, Fridays are work days and apparently gymnastics doesn't understand that. Luckily, Riley is on Spring Break. One of our friends had to be at the hospital so they brought in Riley and she visited with friends who work here and kept the aforementioned friend company as well. This led to her meeting with one of her neonatologists who was just so thrilled that she was off to compete in gymnastics. He honestly is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. I'm still giggling about our conversation about a mouse sized bike helmet and Riley's explanation that you want to clink when you leave a meet because it means that you medaled in something.
In order to qualify for regionals, the girls have to average an 8.75 on every event. We started on floor and Riley fell on her front tuck, front tuck sequence. She fell hard and it was pretty obvious that the sequence would not be counted. She got an 8.0. Her teammates all scored well and since only the top three scores count, we were happy with that.
A couple of friends from IUDM came to watch the meet and they were concerned about her. I pointed out that she was back to smiling so we were happy with that as well.
Next up was vault. It was hard to see her vault because of where we were standing but she got a 9.2. The IUDM guys asked me if that was good, I assured them it was. She had the high score for her team.
Bars was next and I went in to the event a bit frustrated. For years, Riley has been dealing with an issue where she will not connect her low bar. We know she can do it. She did it at OVGC last year so she could shave her dad's beard. But for whatever reason, it's not a priority for her. It's also a .3 deduction. She also has the issue where she doesn't like to cast high enough because it's scary. Her body (mostly her core) has to be above parallel. That part? Well, she kicked booty on her cast. And she was proud which made me proud. Good enough for an 8.85. Sadly, that also meant that unless she pulled out the cartwheel perfectly on the beam, she wasn't going to regionals. Even worse, two of her teammates had horrible bar scores and pretty much eliminated themselves from regionals as well.
On to the beam, she did the cartwheel in warmups but it just wasn't there for the routine and with that, she was eliminated from regionals. She was not upset because she didn't want to go without her friends. And for the first time in years, she wants to try a new skill on beam that would take out the need for that stupid cartwheel.
On to awards, we were so excited to find out that her teammate Spence won all around (as well as two other events) for her slightly younger age group. Riley's friend K was honored as a senior and placed but no podium on two events. Riley's bestie also placed but no podium on two events. Riley actually got SECOND for vault and THIRD for bars. On the way home, she acknowledged that the stupid 3/10 deduction cost her the state title. In a slightly odd moment, we did find out that the
Riley's team won the state title for their age group. Even though I was very proud of them, I also knew that it was because most teams were stacked in the junior division instead of senior but hey, it's a state title.
When the meet was over, two of Riley's teammates still had to compete in a younger age group and Riley's IUDM buddy was hosting an art show on IU's campus and oddly enough, state finals were in Bloomington. So we hoofed it over to the campus in time to surprise her, then hoofed it back to catch the last two teammates finish up. One of her teammates was the state title holder on beam.
So we ended the night with some highs, some lows, some disappointments and some goals. There was no talk of quitting, only plans for moving onwards and upwards. Keep your fingers crossed for my sanity.
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