Gym Blog: Mountaineers Take the Bahamas!

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The WVU gymnastics team capped off a busy preseasons with a trip to the 2014 Atlantis Crown Invitational, at The Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas. The squad flew out from Pittsburgh on Dec. 19 and returned late on Dec. 23.

Many of the Mountaineers’ fans followed the team’s journey on Twitter and Facebook. Senior Lia Salzano also documented the squad’s stay in the Bahamas. Read below as she details the Mountaineers’ fun in the sun and how the hard work the team put forth in the Bahamans will help in 2015.

Thursday, December 18

We left Morgantown around 7 p.m. and bussed to Pittsburgh, where we spent the night in a hotel in preparation for an early flight on Friday. Everyone was so excited to finally go on the trip we have been talking about for months. The bus ride, as always, was loud and lively. We jammed out to some throwback Taylor Swift and Chris Brown. After some traffic, we finally arrived at the hotel in Pittsburgh and caught up on some sleep for our long travel day.

Friday, December 19

We finally arrived in paradise! We crossed our fingers at the airport hoping not to have any trouble with our flights, and both flights were easy and smooth. Reality really hit when we started to descend over the Islands. The water was so blue - we were just amazed. Then, when we landed and walked into the Nassau Airport, there were bongos playing. We knew then that we made it!

After we retrieved our luggage and loaded into a few vans, we embarked on the 30-minute trip to The Atlantis Resort. It was a very eye-opening drive through the towns. The landscape through the towns and at the resort was night-and-day. I think that car trip made the whole team realize how very blessed we all are.

As soon as we checked into our rooms, we all changed and ran down to the beach. The keys to my room, which I shared with freshman Amanda Bowman, didn't even work, but we didn't care. We threw our bags down in Audrey (Tolbert’s) room and took off. Issues like that didn't even matter at this point. The beach was so close! It was about 5 p.m. and the sun was setting, but the water was still so warm and beautiful. We took some fun pictures in the water, splashed around and talked about how incredible everything was. It started to cool off a little, so we wandered over to the giant hot tub. We stayed there until it was time for our first team dinner at Olives.

Dinner was delicious. After, some of us wandered over to the aquarium that was inside the hotel. They had all kinds of cool looking fish. Our favorites were the giant stingrays and the jellyfish. After taking a lot of pictures, we headed back to meet up with our parents and relax before curfew. We stopped by a giant fountain and threw pennies in to make a wish! What a great day we had!

Saturday, December 20

There is no better way to start off a perfect meet day then by waking up in paradise! After my alarm went off, Amanda went over to the window and thrust open the blinds. I almost forgot how beautiful it was! We stepped out onto our balcony and just stared at our beautiful view of the pools and beach. We watched the stingrays swimming around below and spotted a baby hammerhead shark in the stingray pool! Then we met the rest of the team at the elevators to walk over to breakfast together. I think everyone would agree that the hotel breakfast was unbeatable.

The Mountaineers' favorite moment from their trip to the Bahamas was meeting their young fans following the intrasquad.

We met up with the coaches at 11 a.m. for a short team stretch. We also got to check out the competition venue, which was in the Imperial Ballroom in the Resort’s convention center. I was so excited!

After the stretch and walk through, some of us went for a nice little walk down the beach while others took a short lounge by the pool. We didn’t stay outside for too long, as we were are all trying not to get too much sun so we could save our energy for the meet.

There also was a club meet at the resort that same weekend, so we constantly ran into young gymnasts during our stay. They were so excited to meet us, and it was awesome to be around so many little fans.

The meet was a great experience for us. It was hard to have our team split up into two separate teams, but luckily we are loud enough to scream for each other across the ballroom! After going through a little bit of a struggle on bars, the coaches gathered us up and we had a pep talk. We knew that we could do a great job on beam and floor, and we were determined to do so. Dayah Haley gathered our Blue Team beam group together right before we started competing and gave us another pep talk as well. We nailed beam and floor, ending the meet on a super high note! It felt great to have the first meet under our belts. The night really got the team so much more excited to get the 2015 season started. Everyone really fought hard, and I think a lot of our hard work in the gym showed that night.

Following the intrasquad, we spent some time taking pictures and signing posters for all our young fans. After eating another delicious dinner at Virgils, we headed to our rooms for a hot shower and some exploring around the hotel before curfew!

Sunday, December 21

We started the day with a pool cardio session with our strength coach, Beth Byron. The fact that it was outside, in the sunny Bahamas, and in the pool made the workout not so bad. Once we had finished, (assistant coach) Kaylyn Millick gathered us on the beach and took a quick Christmas photo, which turned out pretty cute!

We then had the rest of the day to ourselves. We all had some breakfast and then ran straight out to the beach. We rented a banana boat, and it was so much fun! It was my first time on a banana boat – such a blast!

After the boat ride, we went to the Resort’s water park, where we went on the shark tank slide where you sit in the tube and go through the shark tank at the end. That was pretty cool. Then, of course, we had to do the famous temple slide that you always see on the commercials. We were so scared, but it was so much fun! You just drop straight down so fast!

After the whole slide experience, the team split into small groups. Some girls went to the beach and napped. Some went on more slides and the river rapids. Some girls went to the man-made beach and snorkeled. Some went on jet skis. Mountaineers were everywhere!

We regrouped for dinner that night and went to an all-you-can-eat buffet at The Marketplace. It was absolutely delicious. They had about every type of food you could ever want. After dinner, we wandered down to the marina and hung out there until curfew. What a fun-filled day!

Monday, December 22

For the second straight morning, we started the day with a workout with Beth. On Monday, we did sprints on the beach, and it was pretty tough. Afterward, we got to cool off in the ocean. You don't always get to do that after a sprint workout! Following another delicious breakfast, we went out to the beach to soak up some sun on our last full day in the Bahamas. The team pretty much stayed together on the beach all day. We took some great pictures and made some new friends. We all bought bracelets, and some of us got hair braids. We felt like we were living the true Bahamian experience.

In the afternoon, we all went to the rapids. Let me tell you – that was NOTHING like a lazy river. Those rapids flipped me out of my tube at least four times! We were dying laughing at each other, and I couldn't even tell you how many times we went around. Somehow, we managed to all stay together. Once we had enough of that, we rode the slides one last time.

For our last dinner, we all agreed to return to The Marketplace because we loved the experience so much. After dinner, we went down to the marina again, too. It was a beautiful night. Amanda and I capped off the day on our balcony and enjoyed our last night in paradise.

Let’s Go Mountaineers!

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