United UK gymnastics team prepares for NCAA Regionals

Junior Shelby Hilton performs on the uneven bars at the Kentucky women’s gymnastics meet vs. Florida at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky.,on Friday, February 7, 2014. Though Kentucky posted it’s highest score of 195.450 on the year, Florida defeated them with a score of 197.175. Photo by Michael Reaves

By Alexis Winston

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From the first home meet of the season to a NCAA Regional bid at the year’s end, UK gymnastics has gone through many tests and gut-checks.

But adversity, like players dealing with injuries and a spontaneous life-threatening diagnosis, is what has brought the team even closer as it prepares for the postseason, head coach Tim Garrison said.

“You hear about teams all the time dealing with adversity,” Garrison said. “We’ve had the unfortunate situation of having injury and illness this year. Teams can go one way or the other; you can pull together and use that as something to make you stronger, or you can fall off and not do very well. This team has obviously chosen to pull together and do well.”

After starting the year 2-3, The Cats finished 7-4 and received a bid to the NCAA Regionals on March 23 as a result.

Senior captain Kayla Hartley expanded on Garrison’s notion of the team coming together through all the challenges they faced.

“I think this is a very close group this year. We’re just leaning on each other for support and we know everyone has got each other’s back,” Hartley said, adding that after every setback the Cats faced, they came back stronger.

On Feb. 27, UK gymnastics took its most recent and well-known blow when senior Shelby Hilton fell during one of her performances. Hilton didn’t suffer an injury from the fall, but an MRI revealed four small brain lesions in the senior. She was later diagnosed with medulloblastoma, effectively ending her season. But Hilton’s teammates did not waver as they upset No. 9 Auburn in the following meet, which Hartley said was her favorite memory of the season.

“It just brings you together,” Garrison said. “It gives you perspective on how vulnerable life is, but at the same time, you can take that and say, ‘We have an opportunity that our teammates do not have any longer. We need to take this and make the best of it.’”

UK will carry the motivation to the program’s 11th straight NCAA Regional Tournament in Columbus, Ohio. Garrison said this is a starting point to move forward, and that the team has one last objective left to complete: come together as a unit and win a championship.

“We’ve been tested many times this year by our opponents, tested by injuries, and I think we have passed the test,” Garrison said. “We are as tested as we can be and we’re ready to move forward.”