The Baldwin gymnastic team won the state championship Friday night.

Senior Alaina Wodarek called the meet nearly perfect, with everyone performing to the best of their ability. 

“I hit all my events, so I was feeling pretty strong,” Wodarek said.

Sophomore Hanna Kuchnicki is one of the top scorers for the team. She competes in all four events: vault, floor, bars, and beam. 

“She’s one of our top performers. She’s really strong, so her performance on bars improves our score,” Wodarek said. 

Both Wodarek and Kuchnicki felt the work the team puts in was rewarded, when the scores were announced. 

“We had to get our jumps perfect since the judges are very analytical about those, but everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do and we were all so proud of each other,” Kuchnicki said. 

Kuchnicki emphasized the amount of determination the team has as a whole.

“We are all pushed by our coaches to do stuff and sometimes a little bit of pressure only makes us better,” Kuchnicki said. 

Teams are scored based on point deductions. They start with a score of 10 and judges will gradually take points off as they see fit. Judges focus on the top four scorers of each team, and take an average of their points.

Wodarek explained the amount of faith the girls have to have in each other, because it’s difficult to determine how other teams are doing during a competition 

“Throughout the meet, it’s hard to watch other teams, so you just have to hope for the best,” Wodarek said.

The win was the culmination of a season of hard work.

“Everything you do counts and every person matters,” Kuchnicki said. “It probably took us to the end of the season to learn how to focus our nerves.”

Last year the team was placed in the gold division, in which it is much harder to place. However, this year they were in the silver division.