Maybe it helps the rest of the team having a returning state qualifier. The rest of the girls see that a good routine and a little bit of luck can move you on to the next level.

We spent part of our practice the other day talking to the girls about this, how January's an important month because it's packed full of events. This is the month where we are trying out new skills and basically upgrading the difficulty. You find out what is working, what's not working and what you need to work on still for February.

That junior class has been the group that has been counted on for the bulk of our scoring.

Two of them did a nice job of being the leaders of the team. They helped the five freshmen adjust to how things ran at the high school.

It was hard for her to sit for so long watching, watching and watching. Maybe that made her a little nervous. It was a good experience for her and she can use that in the future. Hopefully she will get an idea of the kind of skill level that is out there. It will give her some motivation for the next season.

Marissa is learning how to handle that nervousness for the competition. She has come a long way in that area. She has beautiful skills on beam. When she feels confident with that she can make anything.