Hayley Rennie to Compete at Gymnastics Nationals

This past weekend, the Chelmsford High gymnastics team wrapped up their successful season with a fifth place finish at the state meet, scoring 139.75 points. Seeded seventh going into the meet, the girls were pleased with the outcome, and look forward to taking a rest during their off season.

Senior Hayley Rennie, however, can still be found at Absolute Gym in Tyngsboro, continuing her training through the month of May. Several weeks ago, the team captain was selected to represent the state of Massachusetts, along with just 20 other gymnasts, at the national championships this May in Fort Meyers, FL.

“It’s the senior nationals team, so at individual states,they picked the top senior girls for the Massachusetts team,” said Rennie.

“We’re very excited,” said Head Coach Dawn DiVito.

Her coach said that during the next few months, she will work with Hayley to sharpen her skills for the big competition.

“She’s still going to try to get new skills for that, too," she said.

Advancing to nationals is a great accomplishment, and will round out an impressive gymnastics career for Hayley.

Rennie got her start to gymnastics early on, when she was in elementary school.

“I started when I was eight years old. I went to All Star,” said Rennie.

Rennie said that she competed in an intense gymnastics program that was just a step below elite gymnastics. After her start at the age of eight, Hayley competed with All Star throughout middle school.

“As I hit high school, I decided to slow down on the private gymnastics. I got hurt freshman year, so that slowed me down also. So, as I came back from injury, I decided to stick with high school, and not continue with the private gymnastics," she said.

Rennie’s decision to compete for the Lions turned out well, as she was able to really improve on some of her skills, and have fun doing it.

“I think high school is a lot more enjoyable than private club, because it’s a team, where as private gymnastics is all individual. I like it a lot better,” said Rennie.

This year, as a team, the Chelmsford High gymnasts had a season to be proud of, finishing with at 12-1 record, before the championship meets.

Considering the small size of the team, only 11 girls competed this season, DiVito and Rennie alike are pleased with the way the winter has turned out.

“Our season has been going a lot better than planned. We’re doing our best, but we had no idea with such a small group of us, we’d get this far,” said Rennie.

DiVito said that Rennie is a great addition to the team, and the fact that she leads by example has really made an impact on the success of the other gymnasts.

“She’s a strong athlete, a great motivator for the rest of her teammates. She’s definitely willing to step up and learn new skills, and she’s a great competitor.”

Although Hayley is a strong gymnast all around, and always scores in multiple events each meet, she stands out in vault.

 “It’s my most consistent event, and I’m most comfortable on vault out of all four,” said Rennie.

During a vault routine, a gymnast leaps off a spring board, with a running start, and flips over a ‘horse’. Depending on their skill level, a gymnast can perform a number of different moves while vaulting over the horse, such as a handspring, or a tsuk. Hayley can vault a tsuk (pronounced suke), a more difficult type of flip over the horse.  

DiVito said, “She’s just improved on her vault. She was doing a tuck tsuk and now she’s doing a pike tsuk. When she came in, (she) didn’t even have a tsuk her freshman year.”

At the state meet this weekend, Rennie placed 9^th overall in vault with an impressive score of  9.0. Rennie said that she was excited about her score, since it was a different vault than she usually performs. Hayley also scored exceptionally well on the floor, earning a score of 9.05. Overall, Rennie was ranked 16^th out of over 70 of the state’s top athletes with 34.1 points.

DiVito said that Rennie has been steadily improving since she first joined the team as a freshman. If Hayley puts in the work over the next few months, she is sure perform well at nationals in May.

“Her ability to adapt to what needs to be done (makes Hayley a great athlete),” said DiVito.” She’s getting new skills all the time.”