The gymnastics team had a successful season after placing 3rd at States, second in the Region, and reclaiming their 2007 Conference Champs title.From the beginning of the season they had their eyes on success.
“I think it was the very first day, after try outs, that I told all the girls that winning conference was well within our reach,” said Head Coach Diana Edgell.
“We have a relatively young team so I wanted Conference to be the only focus and not get ahead of ourselves. I admit that I didn’t think about making it to States as a team until we won Conference and I saw how competitive we really were!”
The Conference meet was in early February, at West Potomac High School. T
he team took home the title with an overall score of 143.2 points, with stellar performances from key athletes such as freshman Hannah Dotson, freshman Alex Marsden, sophomore Abbie Levine, and junior Abby Stout.
They continued to succeed at Regionals in mid-February, which was held at Patriot High School. They finished in 2nd place behind Yorktown.
In late February, they competed in the State meet over the course of two days at Kellam High School in Virginia Beach, emerging with a 3rd place team finish. They sent individuals to compete in the individual section of the meet on the second day. Freshman Hannah Dotson took 6th place in individual bars.
“I was really excited because bars is my favorite event, so … it was like icing on the cake to [get 6th place],” said Dotson.
For a team to go nine years without a Patriot Conference title, and then get 3rd place in the State takes a lot of skill. An important factor in this year’s success was that many of the athletes were former club gymnasts at Capital Gymnastics.
Levine attributed much of the team’s success to their coach, who learned the different skills they could perform that would maximize their points. Their coach attributes their success to teamwork.
“I think teamwork, support, and positivity is the key [to winning],” said Edgell. “I think [being a team] helps all the girls feel less personal pressure, and more excitement in success.”
The team was composed of 17 athletes and two managers, all of whom were able to work together to get the team to states.
“We couldn’t have achieved what we achieved without everyone on the team contributing and helping us out,” said Levine. “Their support meant a lot to us.”
The school can look forward to even more gymnastics success in the future, because now the team is hungry for more wins.
“Now that I know we’ve done it once, I plan to do it again.  I see huge things for this team in the next few years,” said Edgell.

Conference Regional State
Team 1st place (143.2 points) 2nd place(143.575) 3rd place (143.325)
Individual Competitions Abbie Levine 1st vault; Conference All-Around; won beam; 2nd bars; tied 2nd floor 3rd all around; 2nd floor; 4th vault; tied 6th bars; 9th beam participant
Hannah Dotson 3rd vault; won bars; tied 2nd floor; tied 9th beam tied 6th all around; 2nd bars 6th place
Alex Marsden 4th vault; 8th beam; tied 9th bars; 10th floor tied 6th bars participant
Abby Stout 2nd beam; 6th bars; tied 15th floor; tied 20th vault participant