The Simpson women’s gymnastics team continues making history in their second season as a team. For the first time, the meet they competed at was streamed on ESPN+, allowing for a bigger audience.
“It was exciting that I knew my family at home could watch,” first-year Emma Charles said.
The Storm competed at the Lindenwood Tri-Meet on Saturday, Feb. 3, and set program records on floor and bars. While the team placed third, they were just marks away from beating Centenary.
Centenary had a team score of 187.950, while the Storm scored 186.075. Lindenwood won the meet with a score of 194.825.
Charles earned second place on both beam and vault, scoring 9.725 on both. She also set a new school record on bars with a score of 9.225. She also claimed “Athlete of the Month” in January for Simpson Athletics.
“It’s [breaking a record] very exciting, and I know I wouldn’t get here without them, my team, and my coaches,” Charles said.
Charles didn’t feel extra pressure with the meet being streamed on a bigger platform, stating she forgot about it when she competed in her events. She brought up how it was a lot more fun and having the team there contributed to the meet not being different because “I still will always have my team behind me,” Charles said.
Sophomore Bella Dix was another standout for the Storm, finishing third in the all-around. This was Dix’s first time competing in all four events, and she recorded a score of 37.250, the second-highest all-around score by a Simpson gymnast.
Dix commented that performing all four events allowed her to see her hard work pay off and prove to herself that she could accomplish this goal of hers.
Coming into college, her goals completely changed from thinking she wouldn’t be able to compete in beam to wanting to do her best and compete in all four events.
Dix hopes to do all four events again, but she expressed, “If it comes a time where a teammate is having a really great week and I’m not having the best week, I’m more than happy to let a teammate come in and help support the team, whatever the team needs,” Dix said.
Dix thought having the meet on ESPN+ was no different than a regular meet, but the team had a lot of excitement, especially since it was their first time being on TV. The meet was streamed on ESPN+ because Lindenwood is a Division I school.
Head coach Emily Barrett Payne said the team prepared for it like any other meet despite knowing it would be streamed. They focused on other things the team needed to work on from the previous met and on themselves.
Payne enjoyed having the meet streamed because it allowed her to go back and watch the meet, seeing it from a spectator’s eyes.
“It allowed me to see what the team looked like and what their energy looked like and their body language, things like that,” Payne said.
Payne commented that the team’s goals going into the meet were performing their best, working on their energy and how they present themselves, and wanting to allude to how they are a family. Their goal, performance-wise, was to continue working on consistency.
“The work that they have been putting in the last few weeks is definitely paying off, and they had a really strong vault and floor rotation,” Payne said. “And then, we’re still kinda working out some things on bars and beams, but it’s definitely getting better.”
The team is working on getting a score of 187, which they’ve come close to twice this season. They are also wanting to work on breaking their vault and beam records. Their final goal is to have individuals qualify for Nationals.
The team’s second home meet is on Sunday, Feb. 25, against Hamlin. The team went against them twice last year and beat them once. Payne commented on wanting as much student support as possible at the meet.
“We’re pretty evenly matched in that regard, so it should be really fun,” Payne said.
