March 1, 2012
SEATTLE - Due to a career-ending injury, senior Anna Epps from the UW Gymnastics team is not able to compete this year but still travels with the team and has embraced her student coaching position. Epps will blog during the road trips to give fans a behind the scenes view into the team. The GymDawgs were off to Tucson this past weekend. It was a great trip and a chance for us "Seattlelites" to see the sun! The weather was gorgeous and with a high of 80 degrees none of us were complaining. We left Thursday morning, filed into our classy bus, and were on our way to the airport. We went through the usual check in, security and plane ride and arrived in Arizona without any trouble or delays. Stepping off the plane and seeing the sun in the sky was a treat for us all. After gathering all our bags we loaded up in the vans and our trusty drivers took us to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, we had some time to relax before heading off to dinner. Some of us took advantage of the nice weather and sat by the pool and caught up with some school work. Luckily we arrived in Arizona in the early afternoon which left plenty of time for a nice team dinner. For dinner we headed to Olive Garden .Yummm!! It is always so nice spending time with the team and having a delicious dinner. Our last item on the itinerary for Thursday was a team meeting. With the wonderful weather we decided to have our team meeting outside by a warm fireplace - it's always nice to mix it up a bit. For our team meeting each of us came prepared with a personal and team goal written on the back of our trading cards. At the meeting we read aloud our goals and placed all of our trading cards into a pile. The cards were then shuffled and dealt back out with each person receiving a different person's trading card. It was our responsibility to help remind the person (on the trading card we received) of their goals throughout the meet. We knew that no matter how the cards were dealt we will always have a "winning hand." Then it was back up to our rooms and time to head for bed. After a good night's sleep we had a delightful breakfast buffet awaiting us in the morning. We had several hours before we needed to start getting ready for the meet so we were off to explore the University of Arizona's campus. There were some really interesting shops and as you know we LOVE shopping!! After our short outing it was back to the hotel to get ready for the meet. With ribbons and sparkles in our hair it was time to depart for the meet. We had lots of fun taking pictures with one another before the meet in the locker room and after a great warm up it was MEET TIME babyyyy!! We were ready to rock and roll!! We hit a small roadblock on beam but showed we have fight and the team kept up our energy throughout the meet. Our vault team did awesome and we know we have what it takes to achieve our potential! A special thanks to all the fans and parents that came and watched us compete!! We love having that extra support wherever we go. After the meet we had a great dinner at BJs that was pre-ordered and ready for us upon arrival. We had a relaxing night and enjoyed some much needed down time in the hot tub and hanging out with one another. We all had a good night sleep after such a busy day. Our flight home wasn't until later Saturday night so we had all morning to sit by the pool and soak up the sun! After our fun morning it was time to pack up and head back to the airport. We arrived back in Seattle right on time without any complications and loaded up in our bus and headed back to UW. We arrived at our home sweet home with another enjoyable road trip under our belts. Thanks for all your support dawg fans!! Until next time... Anna Join the Huskies Friday at Alaska Airlines Arena as they host Arizona State with the UW men's club team. It is Alumni Night and former Husky greats will be honored on the floor during the meet. Some of those returning include: Shylo (Milner) Loock, Stacy (Connolly) Concelman, Christine Niebling Martin, Joan Greve and Heather Cooper Grandy. |
