Five Terrace Peaks gymnasts travelled to Prince George April 6 - 7 for the 2013 BC Gymnastics Championships, and came home feeling more confident than ever in their skills.
First time provincial competitors Ann Zettler, Maya Ebeling, Ashlee Monsen and Eva Almgren joined second-year competitor Shannon Schuster at the tournament, that saw 550 athletes from 30 clubs from all over the province bring the best level two and over athletes they had to offer. Terrace was part of zone 7 with Smithers and Kitimat.
Two weeks before provincials, the team attended the Twisters Invitational in Abbotsford.
“That was a tough competition,” said coach Ambra Marak.
“All year I did have expectations of individual or even overall placing for two of the girls, but after Twisters we all knew we had lots of work to do in a very short amount of time.”
So, with only five practises between the meets, the girls and Marak worked on polishing routines, confidence, and visualization. They also added in an extra practise the day before leaving for Prince George, which Marak says made a big difference.
“Sometimes, because of the way the training schedule is and the time of the competition with travel time on either side the girls can have four or even five days with no training and that is not good,” she said.
“Our provincial athletes are definitely becoming stronger competitors though competition experience,” she said. “As the year goes on they gain confidence in their routines.”
At the meet, Terrace’s zone took sixth overall, with 144.400 points. And the Peaks saw standout performances, among them Shannon Schuster, seventh overall in Novice, Ashlee Monsen, ninth on beam for Tyro, and in Argo, Ann Zettler tied for ninth overall and Maya Ebeling 17th overall.
The team’s two big meets are now over, but they still have the Kitimat meet at the end of April, and the Smithers meet in June.
“We’re working on new skills to increase our start value and all the girls should have new skills in their routines for these competitions,” she said.
The full results of the competition can be found on the Gymnastics BC website.