Athlete Spotlight: Gymnast Katherine Mosher

-By: Annabel Schneider-

Last year you might remember the gymnast on the cheerleading team during the homecoming pep rally that tumbled for the whole school. This year we didn’t see her because junior gymnast Katherine Mosher was focusing on her gymnastics, the sport she has been doing and loving since she was 5 years old.
“I love gymnastics because of the challenge. It’s so much fun to learn new skills on each event and compete every weekend. I feel so accomplished when I showcase the skills I have been working on for the past six months. I feel like gymnastics has made me an overall stronger person because of the required focus, drive and determination necessary to excel in the sport.”

Katherine competes for the high school team, as well as the local YMCA team located in the Goodwives Shopping Center. “For the high school, the main focus of the sport is more team oriented rather than individual. Our team must work together to maintain our FCIAC and State titles from last year. For the Y, the travel team gymnasts compete for individual titles on all four events and the all-around throughout the regular season. We compete for the Y from December to June. Another major difference is the environment of the meet. In high school, everyone is always cheering for each other on each event. It’s definitely a more relaxed environment compared to the travel team meets,” she said.

Katherine, along with a couple of other Blue Wave gymnasts, practically lives in the gym. She has high school practice and then has to comeback for the YMCA travel team practices totaling up to about five hours of practice five to six days a week.
As the high school season begins as well as the YMCA travel meet season, Katherine has many goals. “I am currently upgrading my skills on each event. My vault and floor routine will be changing the most from last season. Hopefully, this will boost up my scores and start values! Overall, I hope to compete two successful seasons with the high school and the travel team. For the high school team, I hope that we can hold onto our FCIAC and State titles from last year and compete another undefeated regular season.”

The Blue Wave gymnastics main rival this year is Wilton High School. The team would love as many students to come to the away meet versus Wilton on Tuesday (2/1) at 4 pm. There are also three back-to-back home meets this season on Jan.15, 22 and 29, all of which start at 3 pm at the gymnastics center in Goodwives.

Pictured: Junior Katherine Mosher