Pre-Season Injury Won't Slow Down Anderson's Quest For State Title

There’s a famous phrase all Wisconsinites know: “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

While Vince Lombardi had no idea who Maggie Anderson was when he uttered those words, he might as well have been talking directly about her.

You see, the Whitefish Bay gymnast has done just that virtually every time she’s stepped foot on a mat since her freshman year.

“She (Anderson) has won conference the last two years, she’s won sectional the last two years, she won all of the invites we were at this year and I think she won all of the invites last year as well, all (on the individual level),” Whitefish Bay head coach Mary Liniewski said.

Seemingly, the only thing left on the junior’s plate is a state title, something that’s definitely not lost on her. The WIAA individual meet is Friday in Wisconsin Rapids, followed by Saturday's team event, where the Blue Dukes are among the Division 2 favorites.

“(Winning the state individual title) is a huge goal,” Anderson said. “I’ve had it for such a long time, since freshman year. I knew freshman year that that was kind of a bigger dream but now, this week for example, everything counts in practice and all that. I’ve just got to do my thing.”

There were questions at the start of the season about how Anderson would be able to respond to some off-season surgeries however.

Late last season, Anderson took a short landing off a beam routine dismount and something just didn’t feel right. She still competed in state, but placed third with a scaled-back routine.

Later it was revealed she had some bone spurs and a small bone chip in one of her feet.

After surgery in August, Anderson had to wear a boot until mid-November, just before the start of Bay’s gymnastics season.

While some might use a bum foot or a hurt wrist as an excuse to sit out and ease back into things, that’s not the case for Bay’s gymnastics team.

“The girls are actually trained to be able to handle that kind of stuff because everyday gymnasts deal with pain,” Liniewski said. “Whether their hands rip open and they get big calluses they (still) have to get back up on the bars. Sometimes that happens during competition and some girls rip the palms of their hands up, the whole skin…you just wrap it and put it back up on the bars.”

That’s exactly how Anderson viewed her foot injury, doing different workouts to strengthen her arms and core, something both she and her coach noticed right away at the start of the season.

Now that the state competition is finally here, Anderson has a very realistic chance to grasp that goal she’s been pushing herself toward for so long.

“This year, she’s consistently hitting in the 37’s (out of a possible 40) which means she’s averaging a 9.25 on every event and she hasn’t even hit yet,” Liniewski said. “If Maggie hits, she can score close to a 38. At a 37, or a low 37, I think that’s going to be enough for her to win a state title. She could easily score that.”

Anderson doesn't see as much of the limelight as other gymnasts that compete on a club level, and starting the sport in fourth grade is an eternity of an experience setback in many people's eyes. But whether it be experience, limelight or a bone chip in her foot, Anderson plans to rise above it and do her thing.