Teft Wins, Helps Forest Hills Gymnasts Move to State Finals
Teft Wins, Helps Forest Hills gymnasts move to State Finals
By Emily Aldrich The Grand Rapids Press
March 8th, 1998
Katie Teft had not landed her handspring full-layout vault since she was 9 years old.
So when the junior gymnast from Forest Hills Central nailed it and received a 9.0 in regional competition Saturday morning, she knew it was going to be a good day.
Teft scored 37.35 points to win the Division One All-Around title during regional competition at Mona Shores. The combined squad of Portage Central and Portage Northern scored a 141.45 to cappture the regional title. Holland, the four time defending state champion, finished second with 141.00 while Forest Hills scored a 137.30 for third place. Consisting of athletes from both Forest Hills Central and Forest Hills Northern, Forest Hills is only in its first season as a team.
The top three teams advance to the state finals at Rockford High School. The top eight finishers in each individual event as well as the top six all-around performers in both Division One and Two also advance. Competition takes place next Friday and Saturday.
Teft advances to the state finals with a vault she has not practiced in seven years. After suffering a herniated disc in her back this season, Teft decided Thursday to perform the handspring full vault at regionals. According to Teft, the vault does not aggrivate her injury as much as others she has practiced this year.
In the two days Teft spent getting reacquainted with her old vault routine, she failed to successfully land it. And when she learned her team would begin at regionals on the vault, she was understandably nervous.
"I was kind of nervous," Teft said. "I had only been practicing since Thursday, and I didn't make it in practice yet. So when I hit it, I was so excited. That helped me get pumped up for the rest of the day."
"Thursday was the first day she practiced it and she didn't hit it until today," Forest Hills coach Stacy Steensma said. "But I have a lot of confidence in Katie. I think she was a little leery on vault. So when she hit it and got it out of the way at first, I think that really pumped her up."
After earning a sixth-place finish on the vault, Teft collected a 9.5 to win the uneven parallel bars event. She followed that with another first place finish balance beam with a score of 9.70. Teft finished the day on the floor exercise, taking second place behind Portage's Wendy Johnson with a 9.15 score.
"I was really confident in what I was doing today," Teft said. "It was just one of those days for me when everything felt really good."
