On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the Phoenix gymnastics team held its first and only home meet for the winter season, with competing teams including Dominion High School, Loudoun Valley High School, Woodgrove High School, Freedom High School, and Rock Ridge High School. Rock Ridge placed 5th at the tournament, with Hanna Fawzy placing in the top five of vault. 

Preceding the beginning of the competition, seniors were celebrated for their participation in the program, including senior Aalyah Dawalbait and senior manager Mahyas Jami. 

After the seniors were celebrated, Rock Ridge began on the floor, where competitors sophomore Clara Vernon, junior Hannah Fawzy, and Dawalbait competed.

First to begin was Dawalbait, with a routine that she only recently learned; however, that didn’t stop her from performing. In fact, Dawalbait was able to improve her score on the floor by an entire point to 6.7. “I was happy with both of my routines because I kind of made them up a couple of days prior to the meet,” Dawalbait said. “[It was] really last-minute, and even up until before the judges came, I was still practicing my routines. I thought they were really good, and I was proud of myself.”

Despite the constant change in routines and techniques, the team still felt as though they competed well. Vernon’s performance was similar to Dawalbait’s in that regard, having added new techniques to her routine. “I thought I did pretty well on my floor routine,” Vernon said. “I had changed some of my jump and leap sequences during practice before the meet, and I thought I executed them well today.” 

Additionally, Fawzy was able to achieve a new personal best floor score.

After competing on the floor, the team earned a bye, due to five teams competing in only four events. This break allowed them to prepare for their next event, vault, in which Fawzy and junior Lelani Dangerfield competed, with Fawzy receiving one of the top five vault scores at the meet, earning an 8.75, which was her highest score of the season.

After competing in vault, the team moved on to bars, where sophomore Sarah Dawalbait, Aalyah Dawalbait’s little sister, Fawzy, and Dangerfield competed. Dangerfield was able to improve her score on bars by an entire point, setting a new personal best record for her. 

Finally, the team competed on beam to finish their last event, where Fawzy, Vernon, Aalyah Dalwabait, and Dangerfield competed. Vernon was able to improve her beam score by an entire point. 

Though Rock Ridge placed fifth at the competition, the team still took the meet as a moral win.

“I think the team did really well, because a lot of us competed [in] events that we’ve never competed [in] before,” Fawzy said. “So, being under pressure like that, they did really well.”

Head coach and librarian Kathleen Wellington felt the same way. “We have a smaller team than some of the other schools’ gymnastics teams, [and] for a team score, the top four scores get counted into the overall team’s score, so we don’t have as many numbers to make that high score,” Wellington said. “[However], we’re really focused on our individual improvement, individual team goals, getting skills that we have on our goal list, improving our scores, and we have done that in every meet since we started. We’re really proud of that.”

The team will compete next at Broad Run on Jan. 22. In the meantime, Wellington aims to hone the team’s gymnastics techniques. “For [this] year, [we’re] more focused [on] practices,” Wellington said. “Having the girls really focus on those skills that they’re close to already achieving and perfecting those bonus elements that they have will really add some of those extra point values to their routine.”

Gallery • 5 Photos

Madelyn Tucker

Aalyah Dawalbait performs her floor routine.