Tumbling to the Finish Line

The list of injuries is long: a dislocated elbow, sprained ankle, dislocated hip, injured knees, broken wrist, and even the flu. All have conspired to derail the season for the New Canaan High School girls gymnastics team but none could break their spirit, as the Rams go tumbling forward toward the end of the season.

"Injuries have been a big factor," said co-caption Maria Altamura, "but we still feel like we can do some good things."

The Rams are winless so far this season, sitting at 0-5 going into Thursday's meet at Westhill. It will be the squad's last contest before heading to the FCIAC championships on Feb. 12.

Head Coach Ann Tomaselli is still optimistic that her squad can make some noise in the next couple of weeks, building on routines they've been working on throughout the course of the season. She measures that optimism with a dose of reality, however, noting that her top overall gymnast, Alex Orteig, is still hurting and avoiding a last place finish at the FCIAC's is something the team may struggle to do.

With her top girls all out for parts of the season, Tomaselli had to look in unexpected places for girls to take over and keep the team moving forward. She was able to find this with the youngest gymnasts on her roster.

"Our freshman have really stepped up,"  Tomaselli said, referring to Ellen Hoover and Victoria Girardi. "Lauren Ross has really contributed a lot too. She really only competed in two events last year, but has to be all around now just due to the injuries we've had."

When you get hit as hard as the Rams did this year, goals tend to change. Junior captain Alex Orteig feels like the squad has made a good amount of progress since the season began.

"We just need to stick our landings and clean up our routines," she said. "We were really close to beating Westhill, and we were able to learn a lot from our mistakes there."

Another factor working against the Rams is a lack of a year-round club gymnastics program, which would enable to girls to practice and really perfect their routines outside of the winter season. Many neighboring towns have such programs, giving them a distinct advantage when it comes to competition.

Despite all of the maladies suffered by the Rams this season, the girls remain very upbeat and optimistic saying how much they've enjoyed the season and speculating on the improvements they plan to make next season in order to put some more Ws in their record.

"We're all just really close," Orteig said of the team's bond. "We cheer each other on and just learn from each other, and I think that will make us a better team."