FORT MYERS, Fla. — Platteville’s Grace Hammermeister was among 200 top high school gymnasts who competed at the National High School Gymnastics Association Senior Showcase Invitational in Fort Myers, Flo. on May 19–20.
Hammermeister was selected to represent Team Wisconsin after submitting audition videos of her routines to the Wisconsin association board. She competed in the floor exercise, balance beam, and vault competitions.
“It was a great experience to compete with girls from all around the state of Wisconsin,” said Hammermeister. “I knew many of them from competing against them over the past four years. But now we got to compete on a team together.”
The Senior Showcase meet brings together some of the best women’s high school gymnasts to compete for both team and individual event medals.
Participating states this year included Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Washington, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
Team Wisconsin placed fifth, scoring 136.80 points. The team from Connecticut won the team title.
Hammermeister’s best finish at the invitational was in the floor exercise, her favorite event. Her score of 9.25 in the preliminary competition placed her in 18th, just one spot out of making it to the finals. It was also the top score for Team Wisconsin on that event. Hammermeister also had strong showing on balance beam.
“I’ve had a great high school gymnastic career,” said Hammermeister. “This meet brought it to a close with an exclamation point.”
Hammermeister wishes to thank her coaches at Livingston Twisters, Platteville High School, and the WHSGA for helping her prepare for such a fun and successful ending to her high school gymnastics career, her track coaches for allowing her to train for the meet during track season, as well as Platteville Sports Boosters and everyone who purchased cookie dough for helping her finance the trip.
“This experience was one of my favorite memories from all of high school,” said Hammermeister. “It was a great way to end high school.”
As a member of the Platteville/Belmont/Lancaster gymnastics team, Hammermeister qualified for the WIAA state meet in each of her four years of high school and earned a total of four state medals as well as All-State honors in her sophomore, junior, and senior years. Hammermeister was named PBL team MVP three times and team captain as a junior and senior.
