The Texas A&M Gymnastics Club Women’s Level 9 team placed first overall while hosting the Texas Gymnastics Conference Championships on Saturday, March 23, at the Physical Education Activity Program building.

So far in the 2024 season, Women’s Level 9 has either taken first or swept all-around as a team in the five competitions. Despite the “exhaustion” from setting up the gym for the meet, environmental engineering sophomore Megan Rodriguez said the team has “good energy” and is happy with the performance.

Rodriguez placed first in vault, fourth in beam, and was in the top-10 floor competitors.

“I feel really good about my performance, considering it was my first time doing vault this whole season due to an ankle injury I had,” Rodriguez said.

The home meet made Rodriguez want to “show out” despite the extra pressure of performing in front of family and friends, which she said she enjoys.

“Since we recently had spring break, we’re all trying to get back into routine,” Rodriguez said “But I do think our team could improve on being less wobbly on beam, cheering each other on and consistency as a whole.”

Rodriguez said the team met its goals by landing flipping vaults, which are higher in difficulty, and by doing well on the floor with back-to-back routines.

“Personally, I feel the most comfortable doing floor compared to any other event because I choreographed it myself,” Rodriguez said. “But I also love vault because it’s just muscle memory at this point, and I don’t really have to think much of it.”

The final meet will be nationals in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 10-13.

“The stakes are higher at nationals so we’re definitely going to be practicing a lot more within these next three weeks,” Rodriguez said. “But it’s fun because you get to interact with a lot of different people, and you just get to see more gymnastics in general.”

Jordyn Joseph is a journalism junior and contributed this article from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.