The gymnastics team (5-6) will host the annual Sweetheart Invitational tonight at 7 p.m. in historic Reynolds Coliseum. The Pack will be hosting conference rivals UNC-Chapel Hill (8-5) and George Washington (8-3) along with the Tribe of William and Mary (2-9). Following the Friday meet, on Saturday and Sunday, the team will host a club level invitational.
“It is a tradition here — we have been doing this meet on this same weekend, always the closest weekend to Valentine’s Day, for 26 years now,” coach Mark Stevenson said. “It is a great weekend of gymnastics — Woodward camp runs a little kids’ meet in [the practice gym] on Saturday and Sunday and then we have our college meet on Friday night.”
Before coming to the Pack, freshman Anna Kronenfeld competed for a club team that participated in the invite.
“I used to actually compete in it when I was younger because I am from North Carolina and our gym would always come and watch [the Pack] compete and then compete in the Sweetheart Invite,” Kronenfeld said. “It is a nice little tradition that we have going on.”
The Wolfpack will be looking to continue to improve after coming off a season high all around score and season highs on three events in its last meet. According to Stevenson, continued improvement throughout the season was one of the goals the team set at the beginning of the season.
“It is always our goal [to top our previous scores],” Stevenson said. “Constant improvement — if you look at our scores, we had a good score to start and then we dropped a little bit, but since then, every score has gone up — not a tremendous amount but every weekend we have gotten better and we’ve done a better job of performing.”
According to Stevenson, as the team reaches the mid-point of their season injuries and fatigue have taken their toll. The team has tried to accommodate by taking a day to slow it down to revive themselves.
“We’ve been going six weeks and our sport is probably one of the hardest sports to do. We’ve been a little up and down,” Stevenson said. “Some of the kids haven’t been able to go hard because they’ve been a little overly sore — a back here, a knee there — so we backed the off and tried to get them at least one day down so they are ready.”
Stevenson continued that the team is starting to see recoveries from key competitors that, upon their return, will allow the Pack to put its best line up out there.
“But we are slowly getting our kids back, the ones we need to be the best team we can be,” Stevenson said. “As soon as they get a little behind them, I think we are going to be one of the better gymnastics teams we’ve ever had here at N.C. State.”
Senior Elyse Adams said the Pack is prepared for the meet and that fans can look forward to the team’s highest level of performance of the season.
“I think this is going to be our best meet yet,” Adams said. “We are all ready and we are all really excited and motivation from last weekend really kicked into this week. Everything is starting to come together.”
The Pack will face archrivals UNC-Chapel Hill for the second weekend in a row. According to Stevenson, the team elevates its level every time they compete against the Tar Heels.
“I think the biggest part of the meet this weekend is Carolina vs. N.C. State just like it was last weekend,” Stevenson said. “For all of our fans, and I don’t care what sport you’re in, it is important to beat Carolina — it is just something that we do. And when we compete against Carolina our kids get up for it more and so do theirs.”
