The San José Spartans gymnastics team held its first intrasquad meet this past Sunday in preparation for the upcoming season.
Hosted in the Spartan Complex fans filled the seats to watch the women’s gymnastics team compete against each other in an intrasquad meet.
Joanne Bowers, head coach of the SJSU gymnastics team, touched on the importance of having these intrasquad meets.
“We are asking these girls to step up, we want as much depth as we can,” Bowers said.
The depth was seen as Spartans were split between Gold and Blue teams starting the event with vault and bars.
For the Blue team, sophomore Devyn Valuch, an all-around gymnast, started on vault and stuck a good landing with both feet, remaining balanced after her routine.
For the Gold team, freshman Ava Johnson who is also an all-around gymnast, took on the vault event.
Later on, towards the end of the meet, senior Sophia Konieczny who specializes in bars and beam, shouted out to Johnson for her performance on the vault and praised the freshman.
Mikaela Pitts, a junior who specializes in vault, floor and bar started with her bar routine for the Blue team and executed a smooth switch between the smaller and taller bars after initially falling and restarting.
This move is known as the Shaposhnikova name after a Soviet Olympian, Natalia Shaposhnikova where the gymnast starts by facing away from the highest bar while on the lower bar, swings to do a full circle to build momentum in order to fly backwards and reach to the higher bar, according to a July 24, 2021 New York Times article
Finishing the first events of vault and bar, Kaviana Jurries, an all-around freshman for the Gold team went on the bars and performed a nice switch between the uneven bars.
Jurries landed with a summersault and perfect balance.
Junior Kyra Cato, who specializes in bars and beams, started the Blue team on the beam and maintained her composure after a mistake with her balance.
Later on, Cato would be given a shout by senior Juadai Lopes for her technique and composure on both the beam and bars.
Johnson returns for the Gold team stepping in to do a floor routine with a flare that followed the applause of fans present.
Finishing the meet was all around freshman Ava East who Bower pulled aside for a pep talk before sending her off with thumbs up for her beam routine.
Performing her routine with a country song, East finished with the support of her teammates cheering her on even after losing her balance a couple of times but never falling off the beam.
At the end of the meet, the gymnasts lined up in front of those in attendance where a few words were given by Bower and Assistant Athletic Performance Coach, Ben Stupay .
“For a lot of things, it's doing the little teams and that's what separates good from great, and that what they do, every little thing is not a little thing it's a big thing,” Stupay said.
Bower then proceeded to allow the gymnasts to give shoutouts to those who they felt did a good job focusing on the good rather than the negatives which allowed this intrasquad meet to feel a lot more personal.
Bower concluded the meet by directing her attention to the team.
“You guys just did a lot of good things today. I hope you are proud of yourselves and had a lot of fun,” Bower said.
The Spartans gymnastics season starts with a meet against Sacramento State scheduled on Jan 12.
