April 2, 2003

Lemieux grace under pressure at state meet

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

      On Sunday afternoon, Grace Lemieux topped her peers and took first place honors in the Level 7 and 8 State Gymnastics Meet.
      Competing against 20 other teams of Level 8 girls from gymnastics clubs around the state, Lemieux represented the meet's host team, Water's Edge Gymnastics in Traverse City. When the scores were tabulated and the State Championship for her level was in the bag, Lemieux was the one surprised.
      "I had no clue, I just walked in there and thought, 'There's like no way I could win, there's 20 teams of girls here,'­" said Lemieux, a tenth-grade student at Kingsley High School.
      Lemieux also appreciated the supportive crowd, something she does not have at the many away meets.
      "It was nice to have a big cheering crowd, I haven't had that in meets and that helped me a lot," she noted.
      Lemieux will head to the regional competition on May 10 in Louisville, Ky. She will compete with other state champions from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, a nice way to wind up this year's competitive season.
      Lemieux started in the sport at age 11, relatively late for competitors. She shifted from ballet after a few years of study, drawn to gymnastics' athleticism and physical challenges. Her favorite event is the bars and she finds the beam most challenging.
      "Especially on the beam, it is hard to keep yourself square and on it while doing backflips on four inches," she said. The bars are usually the hardest one, but it came real natural to me."
      Lemieux is at Water's Edge working out with the team 17 hours a week, year round. Despite the intense demands and constant travel of competitive gymnastics - which include going to meets every other weekend from January to March - she plans to participate on her school's track team as a pole-vaulter.
      But her heart lies in the gym, where her workouts on the floor, vault, beam and bars include both work and fun.
      "I think gymnastics is fun, every day you work on different skills and get more excited about it, because you are not doing the same routine," she said. "I could not just sit home and do nothing, that is impossible for me."