NEWPORT NEWS— The Christopher Newport University Club Gymnastics Team is gearing up for a trip to the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs Nationals.
The club, which was launched in 2014, is open to all students at the university, regardless of skill level. Due to its club sport status, none of the members are on athletic scholarships. The team purely competes out of a love of the sport.
In just a few short days, the CNU team will head to the national competition in Pittsburgh to compete against other club gymnastics teams from colleges and universities across all 50 states.
Ethan Craze, CNU Club Gymnastics President, had zero experience in gymnastics before joining the club.
“I grew up doing tennis and musical theater. One of my musical theater buddies, who also had no experience in gymnastics, joined the group and kept raving about how amazing all the people were. He would tell me how fantastic this group of people were. The first day I showed up to this club, everyone was super welcoming and I felt very at home. It just instantly made my homesickness go away,” Craze said.
Within NAIGC rules, each gymnast can compete in various divisions depending on skill level. Gymnasts also have the opportunity to try disciplines including men’s gymnastics events, women’s gymnastics events, and trampoline and tumbling gymnastics events.
To earn a spot to compete at NAIGC Nationals, a gymnast must compete in a qualifying meet during the season. There is no baseline scoring requirement and so as long as the gymnast competes in a qualifying meet, they are given the opportunity to compete at the national level.
“Once you get there, there are so many gymnasts. It’s a whole community full of people who just love gymnastics, regardless of their level, which is super awesome,” Corynne Rittner, a senior on the team, shared.
Rittner will compete at NAIGC Nationals in the men’s, women’s, trampoline and tumbling divisions.
The group practices three times a week at World Class Gymnastics in Newport News. With the facility open to them for two hours each practice, each gymnast gets to work on the skills and routines they feel they need practice on.
“People will come and we’ll spot each other. It’s so casual and truly open to anyone. You can come and work on what you want to work on skill-wise,” Maddy Adcock, the club’s social media and marketing chair, shared.
Bryan Johnson, the club’s volunteer head coach, was once a participant in the program himself.
“Everyone is involved in this club because they love it. I don’t get paid to be here and nobody is here because they have to be. This club is unique to other clubs because we truly are inclusive to all skill levels. We make sure that you have fun, no matter what your background is,” Johnson said.
As the team gears up for NAIGC Nationals, each discipline appoints a team captain. Torin Marquez and Mya Aleksak, both freshmen, serve as the men’s and women’s team captains.
“I really just help coach the guys through stuff. I try to offer thoughts on what they need to improve on, see what little things they can fix. At a meet, everything should be set in stone with what you are doing, so it’s really just helping them get to the closest level to perfect that they can,” Marquez said.
At the NAIGC national meet, they are responsible for keeping the team’s energy up during the competition.
“Corrections are super important at practice but at meets, you want everyone to be enjoying themselves, you want everyone to be having a good time. There’s meet nerves, and that’s a part of competing, and that will never go away, but it shouldn’t be ruining the fun of the experience, so I really try to keep people engaged and excited about the meet,” Aleksak said.
As he prepares for his final CNU Gymnastics competition, senior Vangeli Hadjimichael looks back on his four years with the team with a sense of pride.
“We foster this environment that it’s okay to be bad at something before you become good at it. It is so hard to be good at gymnastics. The stuff that you see in the Olympics, none of us are ever going to get there. We welcome anybody from any background they have and it’s so friendly and encouraging. Not only do we encourage people to get better but we push people to be better. That environment is just really conducive to this togetherness that we have. My college experience is really encapsulated within the club,” Hadjimichael said.
The NAIGC National meet is scheduled April 2-5 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information or to learn more about the CNU Club Gymnastics team, follow the team’s instagram.