Blair vaults into gymnastics

In its first year of existence, the Blazer girls' gymnastics team placed 3rd out of four teams that competed at Gaithersburg High School on Friday Apr 19.

Blair scored 85, surpassing Whitman High School, which scored only 38. The Blazers have outscored Whitman in each of the first three meets of the season. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School came in second with a score of 109 and Gaithersburg came in first with 111.

The Blazer squad suffered from the absence of junior co-captain Jessica Stamler, who is a consistently high scorer.

Junior co-captain Ilene Arnsdorf took sixth place on the vault and all-around events and third place on the beam, with scores of 7.75, 7.0 and 8.0 respectively.

Because this is Blair's debut year as a gymnastics squad in Montgomery County, the team has had to overcome significant obstacles such as a lack of equipment and an in-school sponsor. "It's the first year, so it's a work in progress," said Arnsdorf. "We got equipment right before tryouts and we don't have a gym where we can have meets."

Team members attributed low scores on the bars event to the fact that Blair has no bars on which to practice, forcing members to pull solely on previous experience.

In addition, Arnsdorf noted that a lot of the team is comprised of beginners or girls who haven't competed in years.

Nevertheless, the team sees the possibility of placing at Counties despite being the youngest squad in the county. "At Counties, I'm hoping that the team will be able to place by beating Whitman and Sherwood high schools," Arnsdorf said.

Key contributors include senior Maryn Valdez, who has scored third highest among the Blazers, sophomore Lizzie Bryant and junior Nora Toiv.

The next meet will take place on Apr 30 at Sherwood.