In third year, Eastwood gymnasts gaining confidence

Gymnastics became an officially sanctioned sport at Eastwood just two years ago. 

The Eagles have come a long way in the short period since, already a threat to compete among the best in the Northwest District.

“Our team has really come along in the last three years. We added two freshmen this season that have really helped the team by giving the four juniors a back-up,” said coach Jessie Hodulik.

“In gymnastics they take the top four scores on each event and drop the lowest two. You are allowed to put six gymnasts in on each event. We have had three meets so far and have improved each time. We scored a team high of 130.4 in the last meet and I am looking at improving that to a 132 for the upcoming meet on Monday.”

Hodulik, who is also the Springfield coach, has coached the Eastwood team all three years, but there are no other Northern Buckeye Conference schools currently with gymnastics teams. Last year at the district meet, Eastwood placed sixth out of 15 teams.

Hodulik has coached at Springfield 12 years, and her team has won three straight Northern Lakes League championships and qualified for state five times as a team. They won the district meet once and were runner-up once, and she has had multiple individual state qualifiers. She made the trip to the state tournament as a coach nine years in a row.

At Eastwood, she has four returning letter winners returning this year. Her top gymnasts are junior Natalie Redfern and freshman Brooke Mangette. Redfern, who Hodulik calls her most improved, was an alternate to the 2021 state meet in the floor exercise.

“She (Redfern) has attained multiple skills on bars, beam, and vault since last season,” Hodulik said. “Although I would like to mention that we are a really balanced team and when one athlete is struggling the others are able to step in and pull their weight. All of these gymnasts are very talented athletes,”

Top scores on the vault this year are Alli Mangette (8.875), on the bars Brooke Mangette (8.7) and on the floor is Natalie Redfern (9.1). Redfern had an 8.7 on the vault earlier this season and Hodulik says she remains her top floor competitor, but not by much.

“We are really consistent on the floor as a team. Multiple people could step up,” Hodulik said. “Freshman Brooke Mangette is our leader on bars. She scored an 8.7 which would be really competitive for going to the state competition,” Hodulik said. 

In the all-around, Hodulik believes any of her six could have their day.

“On any given day it could be any of my athletes,” Hodulik said. “When putting a whole meet together I would expect junior Natalie Redfern to be my top AA. Last meet junior Brenna Payne led the pack with a 33.4”.

Hodulik says on the beam, Alli Mangette normally leads the pack. She has had two back-to-back highs this season with an 8.65 and 8.55. A second freshman gymnast is already figuring into the mix, too.

“Freshman Bella Provo has really been proving that she is a valuable asset to this team,” Hodulik said. “She has stepped up to fill a void when other teammates did not hit their routine on that day. She has consistently contributed to the team score so far at every meet this year.”

Eastwood competes with everybody in the Northwest District in the district meet, and that includes larger schools, so Hodulik knows her girls have their work cut out.

“The competition is serious this year,” Hodulik said. “Perrysburg and Anthony Wayne have some talented athletes on their teams. Also St. Ursula, Findlay, and Notre Dame are really looking amazing. I would love to see our team break into the top four at the district meet. Only one team will get to attend the state meet this year which is disappointing considering we have some very strong teams this year.”

Hodulik says her team is talented enough to compete with the best, but there are challenges to overcome.

“Our strengths are the hard work and dedication this team is willing to put in to improve themselves. They are a very coachable group of kids not to mention kind and caring. They also really get along great as a team. They are really friends in and out of the sport,” Hodulik said.

“One of our biggest weaknesses is confidence. I really want these girls to believe that they are as good as what I tell them they are. This is such a great group of gymnasts and if they can figure out how to have confidence in themselves and also raise the team energy up they are going to have a great end to this season.”

Hodulik says that her athletes, if they do well enough, have a shot at competing in gymnastics in college, but there are many other options for gymnasts.

“Gymnastics is a little different in that the typical gymnast that would go to college for the sport would not be involved in high school gymnastics. They would stay at a private club gym and work out 20 to 25 hours a week and get recruited from their private gym,” Hodulik said. 

“Colleges recruiting gymnasts do not normally attend high school competitions to find athletes. I don’t think any of these kids would plan on doing gymnastics much past high school. Although multiple colleges offer club gymnastics, I did club gymnastics through Bowling Green State University when I went to college.”

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

The Press

The Press
1550 Woodville Road
Millbury, OH 43447

(419) 836-2221

Email Us

Facebook Twitter

Ohio News Media Association