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Gymnastics prepares to face emotions of senior night

March 4, 2015
<p>Gymnast Alina Cartwright performs on the beam March 15, 2014, at Jenison Field House during the Big Ten Quad Meet against Nebraska, Illinois and Ohio State. The gymnastics team finished third with a 196.200, which was a team season-best. Julia Nagy/The State News</p>

Gymnast Alina Cartwright performs on the beam March 15, 2014, at Jenison Field House during the Big Ten Quad Meet against Nebraska, Illinois and Ohio State. The gymnastics team finished third with a 196.200, which was a team season-best. Julia Nagy/The State News

Photo by Julia Nagy | The State News

They will have to face the emotions of senior night.

The team will say farewell to two players still on the roster and a third that was medically disqualified but remains involved with the team.

Seniors Alina Cartwright and Ashley Noll remain on the team while Ashley Stevenson has had an unfortunate string of injuries that brought her career to an early end.

Head coach Kathie Klages reflected on all of seniors’ time on the team and their journeys at MSU.

She said Stevenson came from California and has had difficulty with injuries since her arrival. Knee problems have kept her from competition, but Klages said she has remained close with the program.

“She re-injured that this summer training to return and had to medically disqualify,” Klages said. “So she has been working with our program as a student-undergraduate coach and so she stayed very close to the team and very close to the program.”

Noll competed for the team through her first three years and the beginning of this year.

Her career was also unfortunately cut short, as she suffered an injury.

“She worked her way into the all-around competing regularly for us at the end of last year and the beginning of this season,” Klages said. “We’ve really missed her this year and she won’t be back this season because of the injury that she had, we’ve just really missed her a lot.”

Even though things in the gym might not have turned out the way Noll wanted them too, she said she is still taking away some incredible memories.

“Best memories (are) the relationships I’ve built with my team,” she said. “It’s really great knowing that I have a family here; I’m going to be friends with all of these people for the rest of my life.”

Cartwright has also struggled with injuries during parts of this season, but has come back and posted some personal bests in the process.

Klages said it wasn’t always easy to get Cartwright to believe in herself, but has seen her grow during her time in East Lansing.

“I think that we’ve seen her grow immensely over the four years to the point where she realizes she’s an extremely good gymnast,” she said. “She really trusts herself and believes in herself and that’s a really wonderful thing to see.”

Cartwright said she can’t believe college went by so fast, but she wouldn’t change anything.

“(It went by) very fast, but it’s been a great ride, the roller coaster has been insane,” she said. “There’s been ups and downs, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Cartwright also said she wants remain involved with the program next season.

“Hopefully (next year) I would like to student-coach and possibly travel with (the team),” she said. “Pretty much just give them all of my knowledge of gymnastics and help them become an even better team.”

Klages will remember her seniors for their commitment to improve the program and restore its competitiveness.

“We don’t want to be last in the Big Ten. We don’t want to be a team that can’t seem to compete well. And they took that concept and really built on it,” Klages said. “They (wanted) to help the program and change the culture, and I think they’ve done that. And that’s what I’ll remember them for.”

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