Michigan City sophomore Meghan Miller can attest to the grind of the high school gymnastics season.
On this particular day, Miller was in street clothes, resting a pair of ankle injuries that have nagged her all season.
“I can only vault so many times a day before my ankles hurt too bad,” she said.
That’s been the story of this season for Miller and her Michigan City teammatese. The Wolves have had to deal with injuries from the earliest preseason practices.
“It’s hard because you want to have them competing with you in every meet and going to their best ability,” Miller said. “I wish they were competing with me.”
Injuries trimmed the Wolves’ preseason roster to six, and two more season-ending injuries left Michigan City with just four gymnasts.
For first-year coach Kaitlyn Schwanke, it’s been a constant struggle to balance keeping her team ready for competition with not overworking them and causing more injuries.
“That’s the battle I’ve been fighting in my head all season,” she said. “There are fewer of them, which means they’re making more turns in practice than they normally would.”
And even the ones competing aren’t 100 percent. Miller said she’s going to require offseason surgery for ligament reconstruction in her ankles.
“It’s harder for me to compete because everything I do causes pain,” she said. “I can’t go for all of my harder skills because I know it’s going to be too painful.”
When healthy, though, Miller has been the Wolves’ top gymnast. She has an all-around score of 36.95, which ranks 14th in the state. Her top mark of the season was a 9.5 on vault, set in January at the Chesterton Invitational.
“We started her off slow with her vaults because of the injuries,” Schwanke said. “At Chesterton, that was the second time she’d done that vault and the first time she’d made it. That was huge for her.”
More Top Picks Best Bose Headphones
Miller leads the Wolves into Saturday’s Duneland Athletic Conference Meet. Miller will be joined by seniors Becca Jensen and Megan Gushrowski and junior Caroline Weber.
While other coaches trim their lineups for the postseason, Schwanke said her team will be at an advantage.
“When you get into the tournament, you only have four girls compete,” Schwanke said. “We’ve only had four girls all year. They’ve had the pressure on them all year long. It’s nothing different for us.”
Looking ahead to the DAC: Chesterton and Valparaiso have been the top two teams in the state all season, and they’ll likely lead the field in the DAC Meet at Chesterton. In a dual meet earlier in February, Chesterton beat Valparaiso 113.3-112.25 and will be slight team favorites.
As is usually the case, the DAC represents a large portion of the teams topping the state coaches poll. Six DAC teams are among the top 13: Chesterton (No. 1), Valparaiso (No. 2), Merrillville (No. 7), Crown Point (No. 11), Portage (No. 12) and Michigan City (No. 13).
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.
TOP 3
With last week’s rankings in parentheses
1. Chesterton (1)
2. Valparaiso (2)
3. Merrillville (3)
Gymnast of the Week: Crown Point senior Shannon Harrison won every event at Wednesday’s four-team meet with Hobart, Lowell and Boone Grove. She finished with an all-around score of 36.55.