Grand Valley State’s gymnastics club hasn’t competed all year, but sophomore all-around gymnast Nicole Lasecki and her Laker teammates are ready to get back into the swing of competition.

“This is our first meet and we are just excited to start,” Lasecki said. “It’s a chance to see what the field is like and get a chance to perform our routines.”

The Buckeye Blast is an annual invitational meet hosted by Ohio State. GVSU was not able to compete last year because of a snowstorm, but they have only heard good things about what the competition has to offer.

Major competition will be at the meet: rival Ohio State, Illinois and Miami (Ohio) feature strong teams that figure to challenge the Lakers. The event is a National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) sanctioned event. This means the competition is used to qualify teams for nationals.

Expectations for the Laker gymnasts are to simply go out, compete and finish off routines. Injuries and sickness are prevalent among the gymnasts right now, but that hasn’t stopped their drive to be their best this weekend.

“We’ve been preparing pretty well, so we hope to go into it well,” said sophomore assistant coach Taylor Dempsey. “In training, we’ve had to take it safe.”

Training has taken a different route for the some of the gymnasts this season with the slew of injuries. Some athletes have limited their practice to routines and strength training and conditioning only.

It’s a young team, as 19 of the 21 members are either freshmen or sophomores. This allows for a completely different team dynamic than the average sports team.

“We are all learning and experiencing growing as gymnasts in this program,” said sophomore Abby Alden. “This has helped us grow even closer to each other and develop a strong bond.

“We’ve got each others’ backs.”

And do they ever have each other’s backs.

Every member is willing to help another with coaching, skill development and simply cheering and encouraging the next member as they train and compete.

There is also a male member on the team, sophomore Austin Tucker, who was the first male to join the team. He will not compete in the Buckeye Blast due to illness.

During the meet, four teams will compete with one team per event (vault, bars, beam and floor). They then rotate to the next event.

A fun aspect of the meet is that both male and female gymnastics teams will be there. Men’s competitions tend to be more relaxed, while the women’s side is stricter. This simply adds to the fun atmosphere of great gymnastic competition.

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