The Valley gymnastics squad is known for many things, but it is best known for its perseverance and ability to push through any obstacle, evidenced by its strong 123.45 score on the afternoon of Jan. 24 at Flip-Flop Gymnastics in Deep River. Despite losing by a measly point to the Haddam-Killingworth/Hale-Ray/Old Saybrook co-op team, which scored 124.55, the Warriors showed that no matter the situation, they will compete at their best.

That situation right now is the loss of sophomore Julianna Alvord, who most likely has a torn meniscus injury that she suffered two weeks ago in practice and is only able to compete in the bars routine for the remainder of the season, putting pressure on the remaining four team members to avoid injury and compete at their best since four gymnasts are needed for an official squad.

"This is a tough loss for our team," said Coach Carl Cavrell of the loss of his year-round gymnast. "Julianna got hurt in practice two weeks ago and she can't tumble, vault, or compete in beam, which is too bad because she has worked so hard. She tried to compete in the last meet and really couldn't do it. She basically had a sore knee, decided to do vaulting one day in practice, landed straight-legged and hurt it. It'll be tough to rebound from that loss."

With Alvord holding the team's highest scores throughout the season, the team must now rely on the leadership of senior captain Maggie Calamari, a gymnast who has an elbow injury, but continues to compete for her team.

"It absolutely does add pressure, but that's when we work best. We're gymnasts and we're used to going out there and putting out our best and we thrive on the pressure," said Calamari. "I told the girls after the meet I was so proud that all of them went out there and gave it their all, so I was beyond proud of all of them. Julianna is definitely our highest scorer, but to show we can still contend despite our top scorer being out, it felt good."

Cavrell has great appreciation for his captain's tenacity.

"Maggie is hanging in there; she's a captain and a great leader," said Cavrell, whose squad is now 2-2 after this recent loss. "Even with her injury and pain, she's going to do it for the team. We've had three meets now and she says it hurts, but not too badly. She probably shouldn't be competing, but she's doing well in bars and beam she can handle, but she probably shouldn't be tumbling on floor and we're trying to limit her number of back hamstrings."

With the close loss to HK/Hale-Ray/Old Saybrook, the Warriors did defeat Old Lyme (81.6) and East Lyme (32.5) in that same meet and Cavrell is thankful for the fact that Valley has a complete team despite Alvord's absence.

"We've been pretty light as of late with kids on the team, but we're hanging in there with what we have," he said. "These girls don't give up."

In this recent meet, freshman Melanie Lee-whom Cavrell said is "improving with each meet and getting better"-scored a 7.7 on vault, a 4.7 on bars, a 6.6 on beam, and a 6.7 on floor for a 25.7 all-around score. Junior Jenna Armenia scored a 7.7 on vault, 7.0 on bars, 7.4 on beam, and a 7.6 on floor for an

all-around score of 29.7, while Calamari proves she can help to hold the team up with her scores as she notched an 8.2 on vault, 6.0 on bars, 7.85 on beam, and an 8.0 on floor for a 30.05 all-around. In Alvord's one event, the bars, she scored a team-high 8.9, while sophomore Mikayla Connor scored the highest and proved a huge asset to the team with her 8.5 on vault, 8.1 on bars, 8.9 on beam, and 8.3 on floor for a strong 33.8 all-around score.

"Our scores today were pretty decent and a lot of times, Class S schools get into states with scores in the 118s, but better teams are in the mid-130s, so we do have to aim higher," said Cavrell. "We're still not in a bad place. We have decent scorers, three meets at home against two teams in the same range, so they have a shot."