Montgomery High’s Cougars seal off a good season
Montgomery High School’s Cougars sealed the season with great self satisfaction this year.
The Cougars put up a powerful performance at the state finals in the midst of home crowd applause. The team entered the finals as one of the weaker qualifying teams – they had been placed ninth.
However, the Cougars’ performance in the finals hiked their rank up to the fifth spot.
“We had a great couple of days. The team was fifth in the state and the girls and I are all thrilled. They all pulled together and got the work done,” Johanna Snedeker, the Cougars’ coach, said.
The team went into play with virtually no expectations, which considerably lowered the level of pressure on the members. In effect, the Cougar gymnasts were able to perform in a more free spirited way, without any inhibitions.
As their coach Snedeker put it, the Cougars had ‘nothing to lose’, in case they performed badly, they would have ended up keeping what they went in with, if they performed any better they will come out with a higher ranking.
This was exactly the wisdom Coach Snedeker imparted to the girls before they went on to compete, and she believes it helped take a bit of the edge off.
As far as the Cougars’ routine was concerned the coach had a levelled answer, “They all did what I expected them to do. Nobody went above and beyond. They all did their part, which made it a nice team effort”.
Especially noteworthy among Cougar performances was Sam Hering’s routine.
The Senior Cougar was able to secure the sixth position in all-around with 37.4 points, eighth position on the bars with 9.375 points and ninth on vault as well as the beam, 9.375 and 9.25 points, respectively.
The competing team for the state finals included Sam Hering (senior), Alexa Taveras (senior) and Renee Mallick (junior) for the all-around segment.
Zoe Zyvith competed on the beam, while Jordan Ricca (freshman) was signed up for vault, bar and floor exercise.
The Cougars hope to return next season with as strong a team as this year’s, if not stronger. While competent senior gymnasts Hering and Taveras are going to exit the team, this season being their last as Cougars, there are no clues as to who will be joining
in as freshman next year.
For Coach Snedeker it is a bittersweet time as she watched two of her finest athletes walk away and move onto achieving bigger and better things in life.
Snedeker has trained Taveras for seven years. She has had firsthand experience of watching and helping Taveras grow in terms of age, talent and character, something the coach claims she has “enjoyed... so much”.
The coach has trained Hering for four years and is quite attached to her too.
“They are true leaders of people. They are leaders in their fields of gymnastics, but also great kids that are fun to work with,” Snedeker said.
Having finished off a good season, the Cougars anxiously await and prepare for the next one, where they could do more than just meet expectations.
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