The Texas A&M Gymnastics Club will host the Texas Gymnastics Conference Champs event, the only home meet of the 2024 season, on Saturday, March 23 in the Physical Education Activity Program building.
The men’s and women’s Level 9 teams won first place at the Feb. 24 UH Cougar Classic Invitational. This follows a successful 2022-2023 season when A&M gymnastics secured multiple individual medals at nationals in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Aggies are ready to compete against the University of Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor and TCU at the upcoming TGC Champs event, psychology sophomore Kendall Twitty said.
“Home meets provide a much different environment compared to away meets,” Twitty said. “At other gyms, the equipment can be a lot different and it can really affect how you perform, so it’s nice knowing your own school’s equipment already.”
Despite individual medals and overall team wins, Twitty noted it was a chaotic weekend in Houston and a pivotal learning experience.
“I feel like we need to have more thorough communication as a team because it’ll help us have a better understanding of where everybody’s head is at during meets,” Twitty explained.
Twitty’s goals for the event are successfully doing giants on bars, not falling on her beam routine and continuing to compete. She said not stressing is arguably more important than anything else.
“I tend to get very worked up before meets and I get super nervous about how I’m going to perform,” Twitty said. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how well I do as long as I enjoy myself.”
Twitty explained that this season has been a lot of hard work as each member has had to push through the physical pain of competing and the mental blocks that can defeat an athlete. The upcoming home event reminds A&M gymnasts to support every team member.
“… I feel like you get so much closer to your teammates when it comes time for competitions,” Twitty said. “Even though I sometimes get anxious at competitions, my favorite aspects have been the fun little moments that I’ve gotten to experience with my team that make all of the hard work worth it.”
Follow @TamuGynmastics on Instagram or visit TamuGymnastics.org for updates on the meet times.
Jordyn Joseph contributed this article from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.
