The Jasper gymnastics club had three out of four competitors qualify for the provincial championships at the Northern Zone trials last weekend in St. Albert.

Jasper athletes Katy Quackenbush, Tannis Potter, Casey Salanski and Caitlin Zaniol all competed on the weekend in what they called one of the most stressful meets of the year.

“It was okay, but it’s nerve-wracking, it’s stressful,” said Salanski, who competed in her first provincial trials meet, in the Provincial 2 novice group, and qualified for the provincial championships along with Quackenbush and Potter.

The girls said it was the toughest competition of the year, as the usual 12 spots were reduced to nine or 11 depending on the level for the northern and southern zones, with an average of 22 competitors per level. A typical club meet only has between ten and 15 competitors per level.

Zaniol, who competes in the provincial 2 Tyro level, had the most competition.

“Tyro is the biggest group. Her age group is the biggest one, so she had about 30 people in her group, so it was harder,” said Potter of her teammate’s competition.

Zaniol said she made mistakes in routines on the weekend that she knows she can do, and has done, in other meets.

“If you do something wrong you feel like you need to go back in time, but you can’t. If you could do it again at the end of the competition, and fix all your mistakes,” she said.

The girls said their coach Nadia Wassef teaches them to treat the trials and provincials like they are any other normal competition, and to not be too stressed out, but there are always nerves.

“It’s a lot of pressure, and every kid deals with it in a different way, but we try and work on that sort of thing so they are prepared mentally and physically to go to events like that,” Wassef said.

Quackenbush said it was a relief when she was finished her competition. “It was a lot more like, if you screwed up, you’d get way more upset about it than if it was just a regular meet, because that screw up would take you out of going to Provincials, and that would be your last chance.”

All the girls had tough competition during the meet and said that the results really depended on who they were competing against, suggesting that one little fall off the beam or mishap on the bars could mean they were out of the race.

“It’s amazing, two points can mean a massive difference, you know? It can jump you up ten or 12 spots,” said Wassef. “The kids that qualified didn’t make any mistakes.”

But Salanski said she didn’t really have any doubts going into the meet and that the girls were all pretty confident.

The club will be heading to Calgary to compete in the Jurassic Classic, held by the University of Calgary, where the girls will compete against other clubs from different provinces. Later in the month they will head to an international competition in Edmonton while Quackenbush, Potter and Salanski will be heading back to St. Albert on April 16 to compete in the provincial championships.