Nixon, Cats Prepped for SEC Gymnastics Championship
The Kentucky gymnastics team will travel to Huntsville, Alabama, this weekend for a chance to compete against some of the nation’s best teams at the SEC Gymnastics Championship meet.
Junior Cally Nixon knows that the team has been preparing well for this weekend’s meet.
“We’ve been doing everything possible to make sure we come out on top,” Nixon said.
Kentucky has had a great season in 2021, with wins over top-five opponents Arkansas and LSU. Kentucky finished with a 4-3 SEC record but was kept out of the evening session at the SEC meet due to the national qualifying scores of every team involved.
Nixon said that this team has become very driven and motivated, and set many goals that they wanted to achieve this season. Nixon and her teammates have been putting in the work to achieve those goals at every practice. They want to make sure that every pass, performance and toe point is meet-day ready.
“Overall, I just want us to be great in everything that we do,” Nixon said.
When prepping for meets outside of practice, Nixon makes sure to keep up with her rest.
“Sleeping is all I do,” Nixon said, preparing her mind and body with mindfulness and meditation to ensure her mind is clear ready to compete.
UK gymnastics director of operations Amy Coyle thinks that Nixon is one of a kind.
“I can say that Cally is the most laid-back gymnast that I’ve ever met,” Coyle said. “She knows that everything is going to be alright.”
Nixon’s clear minded approach ended up paying off at the beginning of this month. She earn a career-high score of 9.975 on the bars. That scored also tied the school record, which was previously held by legendary UK Gymnast Jenny Hansen.
“To find out I tied her score, it’s just amazing,” Nixon said. “I just thought that it was going to be a good routine to boost our team score.”
Her score unquestionably helped her team, as they snagged an exciting victory against second-ranked LSU.
This group is incredibly talented and has shown how willingly they are to commit to this process. Now, they hope to take an even bigger step on Saturday at the SEC meet.
The SEC Gymnastics Championships will be broadcast on the SEC Network on Saturday beginningat 3:30 p.m. ET.
