After a fantastic season last year, the Fuquay-Varina High School gymnastics team is off to another great start. Last year, the Bengals took home multiple state championships in different events. They won the bars, beam, and floor championships, as well as the all-around

championship. 

This year the Bengals will be without their best gymnast, Ashley Hernandez, as she has graduated and is now competing at Converse University. 

Fuquay has continued to find success on the mat this season as they were able to grab a spot on the podium at their last competition.

“We’re not bad this year. We were able to place third in our last competition,” said freshman Pyper Penland.

Our gymnasts have been working hard to bring home another championship as they have a big competition ahead.

“We have our conference competition this week so we’re preparing for that,” said Penland. “Someone broke their ankle at our last meet and one of our best gymnasts will be in Arizona. So we’ll only have three people that can compete.”

In order to come away with a conference title, the rest of the team will have to bring their A-game to succeed.

Our gymnastics team will battle for the Greater Neuse Conference title this weekend as they will take on some of their toughest competition yet.

“The best team is probably Willow Springs,” said Penland, “They won our last competition and have a gymnast that gets a 10 on bars every time.”

Willow Springs and Fuquay practice together, which adds a new level of drama to the fold.

“In practice, we’re basically one team, but at meets, we rotate together,” said Penland.

This has all the makings of a rivalry for years to come. We are incredibly proud of our team as they approach the conference and state championship competitions, and can’t wait to watch them shine.