SPORTS
RoAD TO STATE
Andrew Brooks Roqaya Elmenshawy Jade Foo
On Saturday, Feb. 19, two LHS athletes brought home state championships. Senior wrestler Josh Knudten and junior gymnast Anna Becker won the state finals in their respective sports within hours of one another. It was an incredible day for LHS Athletics as well as for Knudten and Becker, who had been on the path towards this title for many years before they stood atop the podium.
Anna Becker Girls high school gymnastics has four events: vault, bars, beam, and floor. LHS knew they had a special gymnast on their hands when Anna Becker qualified for state in all four of the events in her freshman year during the 2019-2020 season. After a year of COVID-19 disruptions, Becker returned to state her junior year, and came away with a state championship. Becker has been a gymnast since she was 3 years old. After years upon years of club gymnastics, she brought her talents to LHS when she was a freshman. After her remarkable run of state qualifications, Becker “made it to the event finals in vault and bars.” “I didn’t place in either of them my freshman year but being at state was a really nice experience,” she reflected. Becker’s sophomore season featured many disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the mitigations and uncertainty, Becker did not participate in LHS gymnastics. She continued training with her club gymnastics team and honed her skills so she could succeed when the pandemic subsided. Becker returned to LHS gymnastics her junior year with lofty goals and expectations. “During the season, I had fun but it was definitely stressful and nerve wracking,” she explained. “I always really wanted to make it to the next meet.” Becker didn’t just make it to the next meet, she did so in spectacular fashion. “I won Conference,” she said. “Then I won Regionals and Sectionals so that was really exciting.” Next up was state. Becker was making her triumphant return two years later and went into the meet with an attitude of enjoyment. “Once I made it to state, I felt like all of the pressures were off. I thought, ‘I did it. I made it to this step.’ So I just wanted to go out there and have fun. You need to enjoy the ride and not worry about anything else. Just having fun with your team because you’ll miss it once it’s over.” After two days of competing in the four events as well as the AllAround competition, Becker landed her final vault in the event finals and waited for the other competitors to vault and receive their scores. After all ten finalists had their turn, Becker was announced as the 2022 Vault State Champion. However, her celebration was somewhat short-lived. “I was pretty excited but then I also had to focus on bars, which was right after so
I had to keep my focus.” Becker went on to place fourth in the bars, bringing home two state medals, one of which was the state championship. Becker will return to LHS gymnastics for her senior season as a reigning state champion. Her goals are to “not put too much pressure on myself, have fun, and just enjoy my senior year.” Becker receives two medals for her performance in the gymnastics state competition. She won a first place medal and was declared as the state champion for vault and received a fourth place medal for bars. Becker said she “was really happy that [she] was able to do [her] best vault because [she] had hurt [her] ankle the day before in prelims so [she] was excited with the outcome and all of the work [she] put in for that moment.” Photo Courtesy of Anna Becker
On Feb. 19, Anna Becker executes a flip flop layout step out on the balance beam in the state competition at Palatine High School. Becker qualified for state for gymnastics during her freshman year and finished in the top ten for vault and bars. Photo Courtesy of Anna Becker
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3/23/2022 11:22:09 AM
